Survival Instinct
by Shlane
Summary: AU, When Ashley Magnus teleported though the EM shield she instinctivly went to the one place she knew would be safe, her god-father Jack Harkness.
1. Prolouge

Title: Survival Instinct  
Author: Shlane  
Rating: 12A, PG-13, T  
Spoliers: Sanctuary; season 1 and 2 up to Eulogy also hints for Sleepers and Haunted. Torchwood; seasons 1 and 2 up to Gwen's wedding.  
Summary: AU, When Ashley Magnus teleported though the EM shield she instinctivly went to the one place she knew would be safe, her god-father Jack Harkness.  
Disclaimner (Applies to all subsequent chapters): Not mine (though after season three RTD shouldn't be allowed Torchwood)

AN: This isn't going to interfer with my posting for A Werewolf and a Lawyer, promise.

* * *

Another day, another crime scene. Sometimes it seemed to Jack Harkness that Torchwood spent most of it's time at crime scenes, or what would shortly become crime scenes. This time it had been the police who had called Torchwood in on the triple homicide, at least they were assuming it was a triple. The bodies had been so badly butchered that it was hard to be sure but the initial estimate of three was based on the number of heads. But it wasn't the number of dead or even the brutality of their slaying that had got Torchwood called it. It was the long thing claw marks clearly visible on the remaining intact flesh.

Jack walked over to where Owen was still examining the remains, around them Tosh was taking reading to check if there was any residual energy that could account for the bodies, while Gwen talked to the police and Ianto checked the databases for any further information or possible IDs. "What have you got so far Owen?"

"Been dead about three to four days, but it wasn't a Weevil that did it Jack." The doctor told him, "See these claw marks here?" He pointed to what seemed to have once been a torso, "Defiantly too narrow to be a Weevil but they weren't made by an animal." Owen held his own hand over the slash marks and it was clear that they had been made by something with a human shaped hand.

Jack bent over for a closer examination of the wounds, "Tesla." He said quietly.

"That some sort of alien species?" Owen asked.

"Tesla's a man not a species, more or less." Jack added as an after thought, "He went into hiding more then six decades ago, no one's seen or heard from him since."

"Right." Owen said, ignoring the fact that Jack was suggesting that a guy, who had to be approaching a hundred years old, was responsible for a brutal triple homicide. "Well either this Tesla guy wasn't alone or he got bored of using his claws. Some of these cuts were made with a seriously sharp blade, with near surgical precision." Owen continued with grudging respect in his voice.

Owen's description of the wounds combined with the presence of someone who Jack very strongly suspected was Tesla brought only one person to the Captain's mind. "Druitt." They had never met in person, he'd disappeared before Jack had met the group of London friends who called themselves 'The Five'. His fiancée had attempted to kill him after she had found out what he had been doing to the whores of White Chapel.

"Another old friend?" Owen asked.

"We never met." Jack told him, "But I guess he's not as dead as we thought he was. The thing that I don't get is why would they be working together?" Jack wondered aloud, "From everything I've heard, from a very reliable source, they hated each other.

"Jack?" Ianto walked over to where the other two men were working, Tosh and Gwen trailing behind him.

"What have you got Ianto?" The Captain asked.

"There's a series of reports from all around the world of similar attacks, all aimed at businessmen and women." Ianto told him, "It's been going on for the past week but as far as I can tell no one else is putting the pieces together."

"There's a very slight increase in electrical energy in the soil." Tosh said, "But otherwise nothing to indicate that this was related to the Rift."

"No one saw anything or heard anything." Gwen said, checking her note pad. "But the police think that this wasn't a body bump, meaning they were killed here."

"Well that doesn't help much." Owen said, looking around the abandoned industrial complex. "Jack seems to think that this was the work of a pair of his old friends."

"Not friends," Jack said, "I've never met Druitt and I wouldn't exactly call Tesla a friend, I don't think he really has many friends. But I don't understand why they'd be working together, according to their friend Helen Magnus, they hated each other. I can't imagine what would make them work together."

Ianto's PDA beeped, "I set it up to alert me is another murder matching this one appeared." He pulled it out and read the screen. "Another body had be found, in Paris. Been dead approximately twenty four hours. Similar style to this one, but no claw marks." He scrolled down the screen. "But it was more brutal, she had her heart cut out and then diced. The police found it next to what was left of her body." Everyone looked more than a little sick at that, "There was another difference, her driving licence was left on top of her body, seems the killer or killers wanted everyone to know who she was."

"That's sick." Gwen gasped, "What type of psychopath are we dealing with?"

"The very dangerous kind." Jack told her, "Owen I want these body's taken back to the Hub and a full autopsy carried out. Tosh get Paris body sent to us as well, if it's who I think it is we need all the clues we can get."

"Who do you think it was Jack, those men you mentioned earlier? Tesla and Druitt?" Gwen asked

"They aren't just men Gwen. Nikola Tesla is part vampire and John Druitt is Jack the Ripper!"

* * *

AN: So what does anyone actually reading this think? I only posted it cos a friend was bugging me to (you know who you are!)


	2. Chapter 1

AN: Well here you go and thanks to everyone who reviewed, yes ashley will appear in this chapter.

* * *

Once he was back at the Hub, Jack went immediately to his office and closed the door behind him. Only Tosh had returned to the hub with him, needing her computers to divert the body of the woman murdered in Paris, Dana Whitcomb, to Cardiff.

The first number Jack dialled informed him that it had not been possible to connect his call. Frowning at the phone he hung up and tried again, hoping he had merely mis-dialled the number but he got the same response. More concerned now he dialled an international number and was relived when it was answered.

"Dr Magnus, may I help you?" Dr Helen Magnus was the head of an organisation called the Sanctuary Global Network. It's aim was to help those rare people and creatures that did not fit into any known species. Nature's experiments they had been called but the more common term was abnormals. They took a variety of forms, from rare species of animal that exhibited strange and unusual abilities to sentient life some of which was almost human in appearance. The range was extraordinary; creatures of myth such a mermaids, bigfoot and werewolves, to children born with snakes in place of hair, extra limbs or literally two faces. Whatever they were, Helen Magnus's organisation took them in. Sanctuary for all was both the motto and the rule. Even Helen herself was an abnormal, she looked no more than her mid-thirties at most she was in fact almost 160 and Jack had known her for over a century. Though they might both be long lived one trait they did not share was that if Helen was killed she would not be coming back from the dead the same way Jack could.

"Helen? It's Jack Harkness." Jack was concerned, something had happened. Something very bad, he could hear it in her voice.

"Jack, hello, what can I do for you?"

"I just tried to call James in London and all I got was a message telling me it had not been possible to connect my call."

"Oh Jack, I'm sorry I thought someone from London would have contacted you." Helen sounded upset but Jack was certain that she had already been upset before he called. "James died two months ago, and the London Sanctuary was attacked last week, it'll be March before they're up and running again."

Jack closed his eyes for a brief moment in sorrow, James had been a good friend to him for a very long time, as long as he had been trapped on Earth in fact. But he had lived a good long life, over 160 years, his genius allowing him to devise machines to extend his life span to almost double the typical human one. And it wasn't as if he hadn't expected this, months earlier James had confided in him that his machines were beginning to fail and that his time was drawing to an end. Still with the passing of James Watson the world had lost a mind the likes of which it may never know again.

"Helen, there's something you need to know." Jack said, "I have evidence that Tesla and Druitt are both a alive and working together."

"You've found bodies?" Helen asked him, like she already knew the answer.

"How did you know?"

"Because John told me what he was doing and that Nikola was helping him." Helen sobbed slightly, "Oh god Jack, Ashley's dead! John's killing the people who killed our daughter."

"Ashley is dead?"

"She died last week, I should have called you sooner but I didn't think." Jack could hear the tears in Helen's voice. "The Cabal were determined to destroy the Sanctuary Global Network so they kidnapped Ashley and turned her into a killing machine. Eventually she broke free of their control but she chose to kill herself." Helen's voice broke again at that, "Rather than live as what they had made her."

Jack wiped his eyes. He had known Ashley all of her twenty three years, had seen her grow from a pretty fair haired girl into an awkward teenager and finally a beautiful and deadly young woman. He had helped to teach her how to handle an assortment of guns with deadly accuracy, and how to deal with the lowlifes of the world so that she always came out on top.

Now she was gone.

"Shit, Helen, I am so sorry. So very very sorry." Jack couldn't find the words for what he was feeling. "But Druitt knew about her? That she was his daughter?"

"Yes. Tesla tortured him and it doubled as electroshock, he's John again."

"Helen, go back to the beginning." Jack requested, "How did this all start? I thought Druitt was dead, from old age if not your bullet, and Tesla was in hiding."

"Alright." Helen said, composing herself. "It started about a year ago, John came after my blood because he was dying."

By the time Jack had finished his call to Helen the rest of the team had returned to the Hub. Owen confirmed that there were in fact three bodies, two males and a female. Tosh was able to track down their names and addresses, nothing in their records suggested why they had been killed so violently and Gwen wondered if it had been a random attack.

When Jack emerged from his office his eyes were still faintly red rimmed from crying and the set of his jaw told anyone paying attention that he was not happy. "Jack." Tosh said tentatively, no one wanted to be the first to address the captain. "The French Police have the body of Dana Whitcomb on route to us now."

"Good." Jack said, "Ianto when it arrives see that it's incinerated, and any ash that left can be dumped in the sewers for all I care. Do the same with the three bodies once Owen's done with them." Ianto nodded, knowing that this was not a situation to argue with Jack about.

Gwen however was not so easily dissuaded. "But Jack, shouldn't we found out how and why they died?"

"The how is obvious and as for the why, they deserve it. Just leave it at that." Jack ordered

But Gwen wouldn't leave it. "But Jack, surly we can return their bodies to their families, do they deserve that at least?"

Jack turned on Gwen, "Because of these three and the other murdered people around the world, especially Dana Whitcomb, there are over one hundred people dead." The was the rough combined total of human and abnormal fatalities that Helen had been able to give him, including the six super-abnormals that the Cabal had created. "Because of them, one of my oldest friends has just had to bury her twenty three year old daughter, except it had to be an empty coffin because there wasn't even a body to help give her friends and family closure." Jack knew he was ranting but he couldn't help it, he might have hired Gwen for her human touch but sometimes her attitude infuriated him. "One of the men doing the killing is that girl' father and if theses deaths help him to find closure then so be it."

"Jack you cannot serious be condoning." Gwen started but Jack cut her off before she could finish.

"You bet I am." He snapped, "She was my god-daughter and believe me, if I'd known sooner about Ashley's death sooner, I would have been helping Druitt and Tesla dispatch those murdering bastards back to hell in the most painful way possible. Left alive they would have started again and more people would have died." He turned to Ianto. "You have your orders, I want those bodies burnt."

"And any ashes thrown in the sewer." Ianto said, "Yes Sir." Jack turned on his heel and strode back into his office, slamming the door behind him.

Gwen stared at his door in disbelief, then at Ianto, Tosh and Owen, who had come up from the autopsy bay when he heard shouting. "You can't agree with that."

"He's the boss." Ianto said, "Whether we agree or not doesn't really matter does it?"

"But do you?" Gwen pressed.

"One hundred people dead, including the daughter of a friend, his own god-daughter." Ianto looked Gwen straight in the eye, "Yes Gwen I do."

"What about you two?" Gwen said looking for support from Tosh and Owen.

"Jack knows what he's doing." Tosh said, turning back to her computer screen.

"If everything Jack says is true then they deserved this." Owen said, "Rich people don't go to jail, not in the real world and from their clothes these were rich and powerful people. If death is what it takes to stop them from killing another hundred people, then I'm with Jack. Especially if one of men doing it is the father of someone they killed."

"Twenty three is far to young to die." Tosh said softly.

"Especially when you don't have a choice." Ianto agreed.

Gwen stared at her colleagues in disbelief, apparently unable to believe that none of them had supported her, and then stormed out of the Hub. After watching her go Owen turned to Ianto, "I'm done with them mate, not much to find really, a lot of lacerations by sharp blades and claws, bled out slowly."

"I'll take care of the disposal then." Ianto said moving towards the autopsy bay.

Meanwhile Owen was pulling off his bloodied gloves and lab coat, "Can't see why anyone would want those bodies back anyway, what's left is a jigsaw."

Gwen didn't return to work for the rest of the day and Ianto was privatively grateful. He could see, even if Gwen couldn't, that Jack was mourning the loss of someone he had cared for very deeply and he did not need Gwen and her self-righteous opinions telling him that what he was thinking and feeling was wrong. What he needed, Ianto knew, was loving support. Which was why, later that night after Tosh and Owen had gone home, he sat with Jack in his office, tie off and whisky in hand, listening as the older man told him stories about Ashley Magnus and her mother Helen.

Two days later and the atmosphere in the Hub was still subdued. Gwen wasn't speaking to any of them unless it was necessary, no doubt still mad that none of them had agreed with her opinions on the disposal of the bodies. Jack was still grieving for the girl he had look on as a niece and the man who had been his friend for a hundred years. And every one else was treading on egg shells to avoid setting either of them off.

Nervously Tosh approached Jack's office and knocked on the door. "Come in."

Tosh opened the door but remained standing in the door way rather than entering the room, "Jack, I just wanted to let you know that I'm running a complete scan of the lower levels." Such scans were typically run once a month, they picked up any technology or biological matter that might have slipped though undetected as well as any changed in the structure of the Hub that had been caused by the Rift. Both had been known to occur though less so now that Tosh had almost perfected the Rift detector. Still the scans were run on the principle that it was better to be safe than sorry.

Jack nodded, during such scans it was necessary of them to stay out of the lower levels so that they didn't interfere with the scans and affect any readings. "Thank you Tosh, have you told Ianto?" During the scans no one could be in the lower levels or their presence could mask something that should have been picked up.

"He said he was looking forward to a peaceful day without having to find files for you and Owen even hour." Jack smiled slightly and waved that Tosh could go, she was just pulling the door closed when she shook her head back in and said softly, "I'm sorry about Ashley Jack."

Jack gave her a small smile as thanks and she left him alone with his thoughts.

It was late afternoon when a beep from the scanning program surprised Tosh out the the deep concentration she had been using to write a new program. Surprised to turned to see what the alert was, her monthly scan of the Hub had, for the first time in years, picked up something it shouldn't have. A biological sample in one of the lowest levels and from the sensors it seemed to be alive. How odd.

"Owen what do you make of this?" Tosh called.

The medic joined her at her station and read the screen over her shoulder. "It's alive and based on these readings its too big to be a rat and too complex to be mould. You better call Jack." He advised before heading back to the alien he'd been autopsying.

She keyed the comms. "Jack, could you come look at this please?" She didn't get a verbal acknowledgement but less than a minute later Jack was standing at her shoulder.

"Have you founding something Toshiko?"

"The scan of the lower levels had picked up something biological and scans indicate it's alive." She told him, pulling up the relevant data and spreading it across several screens. "It shouldn't be there and I'm sure it's too big to be mould or something like that.

"You're right." Jack agreed, "This is worth investigating, keep an eye on it and alert me if anything changed. Ianto." He raised his voice to catch the Welshman's attention. "Grab a gun, there something in the lower levels that shouldn't be there." Ianto was the most logical choice, quite apart from the fact that Gwen wasn't speaking to him and Owen was elbow deep in a dead alien, Ianto knew the lower levels like the back of his hand. Mainly due to the amount of time he'd spent down there in his first few months as Cardiff.

Once both men were armed they headed down into the lower levels with Tosh guiding them on the comms. "Follow the left hand tunnel for twenty meter, then make a right." She told them, they were already in the lowest level of the hub, an area that probably hadn't had a living person in it in years, possibly even since it had been built. "Seventeen meters and it should be to you right."

Jack and Ianto both edged forward, torches in one hand and gun ready in the other. Cautiously they made their way towards where Tosh had detected the lifeform. Standing either side of the entrance to the small room where the lifeform was supposed to be Jack gestured to Ianto that they would move on three. The Welshman nodded and on three both stepped into the doorway, torch beams scanning the room and guns following.

Whatever they had expected to find it was not what they did. The beams of light illuminated a body laid in the middle of the floor. Jack edged forward and nudged the body with his boot so that it rolled onto its back, as he saw the face Jack felt as if he had been hit by a train. He hoisted his gun and dropped to his knees, feeling for a pulse while simultaneous calling Tosh over the comms. "Tosh get Owen down here, now." He could feel a pulse under his questing finger tips but it was weak.

"Jack who is it?" Ianto asked, he hadn't put his gun away but instead held it at his side.

"This is Ashley." Jack said as he tenderly brushed her blond hair out of her face. Her skin was faintly burnt in places as was her long blond hair but there was no doubt in Jack's mind that, thanks to some miracle, this was indeed the Ashley Magnus that everyone believed was dead.

* * *

AN: Next chapter should be tuseday or wednesday


	3. Chapter 2

AN: Sorry it's a day later than I said it would be, I'd like to say I have a good reason but the truth is I'm a complete scatter-brain and forgot so again, Sorry. This is a long one for you simply cos I couldn't find anywhere sooner to cut it

* * *

Closer examination back in the main part of the hub proved that she wasn't exactly the Ashley that Jack remembered. Each of her fingers sported deadly vampiric claws and Owen also pronounced her malnourished, which Jack explained by suggesting that she had been down there for over a week. How she had survived that long was anyone's guess but the assumption Jack was going with was that it was a side effect of what the Cabal had done to her. Otherwise she was suffering from first and mild second degree burns on most of her exposed flesh but that seemed to be healing well on its own and at a remarkable rate.

Jack stood in the door of his office wondering why it was so hard to walk to his desk, pick up the phone and call Helen. He was the barer of some of the best of news she had likely ever heard and yet it was so difficult to tell her that. Perhaps it was because he could so clearly see that this wasn't the Ashley he'd known and perhaps he wanted to spare his good friend any further pain if it should turn out that she was still the weapon the Cabal had made her. Finally gathering his courage and determination Jack took his seat behind his desk and dialled Helen's number.

"Dr Magnus, how may I help you?"

"Helen."

"Jack." She was clearly surprised, "Two phone calls in a week, I am shocked. What can I do for you this time?"

"I need you to come to Cardiff, now."

"Jack I really haven't got time at the moment, the Global Network is in chaos. I've got building and repair work to do and hundreds of displaced residents to handle. Perhaps in a few weeks I could visit?"

"No Helen, you need to come now" Jack was very insistent. "And bring Druitt with you if you can find him, it's about Ashley."

"Ashley!" Helen sounded shocked, "Jack whatever do you mean?"

"One of my people was running a scan of the base and found unidentified organic matter where it shouldn't have been, we investigated and found Ashley."

"She's alive?" Helen's voice was a combination of fear and hope. Hope that she was right in her interpretation of what Jack was saying and fearful that she wasn't.

"She's unconscious, suffering from burns and malnutrition, and she is currently sporting some very nasty claws but yes she is alive." Jack then had to hold the phone away from his ear at Helen's scream of joy. "I'll text you the GPS coordinates of the entrance to the base and have someone meet you, when can you get here?"

"If I can find John, about five minutes." Helen's voice was giddy with relief. "Otherwise tomorrow. I'll bring some of my equipment with me, if you have a doctor there make sure he's careful about anything he gives her, she's not human Jack."

"I know Helen, I'm been very careful with her." Jack assured the woman who sounded like a cross between a worried mother and a doctor, which is what she was. "Now get off the phone and contact Druitt, if you can't then let me know and I'll make the arrangements to get you here."

"Thank you Jack." Helen hung up the phone and Jack went back out into the main Hub to advise them that they were expecting visitors. "Ianto we're having visitors make sure you're stocked for tea because Dr Magnus won't drink anything else."

"When are we expecting them?" Ianto asked as he mentally ran an inventory of what was in the cupboards.

"Possibly within minutes, it depends of whether she can contact Druitt, if not then tomorrow." Jack explained.

"Druitt?" Gwen asked, it was the first time she had spoken to Jack in over a day and the first time she had asked a question since she had disagreed with him over the disposal of the bodies. "Didn't you say he was Jack the Ripper?"

"Yes but he's changed since, according Helen." He looked at Gwen, "Are we going to have a problem?" He knew that with the way Gwen thought they might very well have a serious problem, she was a very firm believer in justice, she had been a police officer after all, but Jack knew that justice was not always meted out by the justice system, nor did it always taken the form of a prison sentence. Druitt was, according to Helen, haunted by the actions of his past but especially what he had done to his fiancée and daughter. Those memories were, Jack knew, a far greater punishment then anything the law could impose. What was the loss of freedom compared to the loss of everything you had ever loved?

"No Jack."

"Because if we are then you can take the rest of the day off." Jack told her, "In fact it might be better if you did, the last week has been hard enough for Helen without you and Druitt getting into and argument."

"No Jack, I'll stay but I won't say a word." Gwen promised, truth was she was curious about the man who had been the most famous serial killer in the history of the British police force.

"If you get tempted, I've got plenty of filing that needs doing in the archive." Ianto offered, trying to diffuse the situation by offering Gwen a way out if she couldn't hold her tongue without Jack having to order her out of the Hub. She nodded gratefully.

"Owen, Tosh, see if you can get Ashley cleaned up a bit, not that I think her parents will notice or care but still."

"Of course Jack." Tosh said, abandoning her computers to join Owen in the autopsy bay where he was monitoring his patient. Gwen returned to her report writing, Ianto headed up to the tourist office and Jack remembered that he needed to text the coordinates of the Tourist office to Helen. The tourist office was a safer option then the Hub itself since Druitt wouldn't need to compensate for the fact that they were several meters underground.

Helen stared at her phone in shock for several long seconds after she'd ended the call. She had been right all along, her daughter was alive! She had made it through the EM shield after all, but rather than landing nearby she'd teleported herself all the way to Cardiff, and her uncle Jack. Somewhere safe and someone who could keep her safe, from the Cabal and more importantly from herself, stop her harming her family or friends.

Her shout of joy had caught the attention of all her staff and a good few of the residents. It was a well known fact that Helen Magnus simply did not shout like that, she might raise her voice to get her point across but never in joy like that. Particularly when in the last few months, and especially the last week, there had been precious little joy to be had.

Ignoring their questions, Helen quickly found the number of John's cell in her own phone's memory and called him. He hadn't been particularly happy about taking the phone but she had insisted, the Cabal was destroyed but individual cells still remained active and she wanted a way to get in touch with him in case something happened, she'd given a phone to Nikola as well.

Now she just hoped that John was somewhere with reception and that he hadn't 'accidentally' lost or broken it already as he had threatened it do.

She was very relived when he answered, "Helen?"

"John, I need you to come back to the Sanctuary, now."

"What ever for Helen?"

"It's about Ashley." She did not want to have this conversation over the phone.

"Not this again please Helen, let our daughter rest now." John sounded resigned but whether it was to the loss of their daughter or to the fact that Helen still believed she was alive it was hard to tell.

"Please John, I don't want to have this conversation over the phone, but if you ever really loved Ashley as your daughter then please come."

He sighed, "As you wish Helen, will you lower the EM shield or should I use the front door."

"I'll lower the shield." She assured him, nodding to Henry to do so. The werewolf didn't look particularly happy about it, probably because it meant Druitt would be back, but did as he was told, tapping out the commands on the tablet he carried.

"Then I shall see you shortly." John assured her before ending the call.

"What's all this about?" Will wanted too know.

"Please wait until John arrives, he deserves to hear this at the same time as everyone else." No one was particularly happy about waiting but since they were dealing with a teleporter it would not be a long wait. Meanwhile Helen's cell beeped signalling an incoming text message, it was from Jack and contained the coordinates for her and John to teleport too. Helen had been to the Hub once before, a few years earlier, but John hadn't so he would need the coordinates to guide him and ensure they didn't end up inside a wall.

A flash of red signalled John's arrival, "Helen what was so urgent that I had to come immediately but so secret that you wouldn't discuss it over the phone?"

She waved him to take a seat, then noticed that her staff had already settled themselves in the spare seating in her office, John noticed too and opted to lean against the mantelpiece over the fire instead. Helen took a deep breath before she spoke, she did not need any special gift to see that the next few minutes were going to be difficult. "Ashley is alive."

She could see the resignation on the faces of every man in the room, they all thought that she had started up her quest again, but it was John who gave voice to their thoughts. "Not this again Helen, please I beg you, let our daughter rest in peace."

"I was going to, I never thought she was dead but I was going to let the matter lie. I said my goodbyes at the memorial service, accepting that whether alive or dead she was beyond my reach. Then I got a call this morning from an old friend in Cardiff telling me he'd found Ashley."

John was shocked into silence but Will's ever analytical mind started questioning what she had said, "Are you sure you can trust him? This could be a trap."

"Will there are few I trust more than Jack Harkness and even fewer I have known longer. "I meet him in 1906, we both share a peculiar longevity thought the reasons behind it are decidedly different and his is possibly even more extreme then my own. Will, if it will set your concerns to rest he was also good friends with James Watson." She smiled, "I trust him with my life."

"And he's found Ashley?" John asked, shock written all over his face.

"In one of the lower levels of his base." She told him, "She's in a bad way, Jack thinks she's been there since she teleported through the EM shield, but she's alive."

"When can we see her?"

"He's expecting us." Helen said standing and walking over to John, "If I can impose upon you?"

"It is no imposition, nothing for you or our daughter cold ever be." Helen smiled, at times she was reminded very clearly of the man she had fallen in love with more than a century ago.

"Do you want us to come with you?" Henry asked.

Helen smiled at him, she knew that he and Ashley had always been very close, after all they had practically been raised as brother and sister, though Helen always suspected that at least the werewolf harboured secret feelings of far more than brotherly love for her daughter. "No Henry, it would be better if the three of you were to remain here to over see the running of the Sanctuary and coordinate the rebuilding, besides it was be rude to completely over run them when they are only expecting John and I." She saw the sadness in the young man's eyes and relented, "Perhaps John can bring you later, once we are sure her condition is stable."

John agreed to that and silently wondered if his future was as the Sanctuary's taxi service. It seemed that would be the case as Helen asked if he could teleport them down to the labs first so that she could pick up her medical bag. Inside she put everything that she thought she might need to help stabilise their daughter.

Finally once she had everything she thought she might need, she asked John to teleport them to south Wales. As John wrapped his arm around he he decided the maybe he could live with been the Sanctuary's taxi service since it was just about the only circumstances under which Helen allowed him to touch her.

They appeared in what looked to be a small tourist office, the young man leaning against the counter straightened when they appeared but did not seem more than faintly surprised to see two people appear out of thin air in a flash of red light. He was well dressed in a black suit with a blue shirt and cranberry tie. He offered his hand first to Helen and then to John, "Dr Magnus, Mr Druitt, I'm Ianto Jones, Captain Harkness asked me to escort you down." His accent marked him as a native and he reached under the counter to activate a hidden button that caused a section of wall swung away to reveal a hidden passageway. "This way please." He gestured for them to proceed him.

The hidden door swung closed behind them and the Welshman led them to an elevator at the end of the corridor. "Most of the Hub is underground but the Captain though it would be easier and safer for you to arrive at the surface entrance."

"Thoughtful of him." John commented. The rest of the journey was in silence and they were met at the entrance to the main part of the hub by Jack who immediately embraced Helen.

"Oh Jack it's good to see you again." She said as she hugged him.

"You to Helen." He turned to John, "Mr Druitt, I've heard quite a bit about you, good and bad, and I've seen your recent handiwork. While I share the sentiment behind it if you hurt my people I will kill you." Jack warned him.

"Your warning is noted Captain but I mean you and your people no harm. I am here because of my daughter."

Jack nodded and led them towards the autopsy bay, "She'd been stable since we found her in the lower level and her physical condition is improving. But I'll leave any details of that to the experts." He paused just before the entrance to the autopsy bay where a man in a lab coat was waiting.

"This is Doctor Owen Harper, our resident physician. Owen these are Ashley's parents, Dr Helen Magnus and John Druitt." Owen shook hands with them both.

"MD or PhD?" He asked.

"Both." Helen said, "When you've been around long enough, Doctor Harper, you can pick up quite a few."

"He never has." Owen said gesturing towards the Captain. "And it's just Owen, we're all on first names round here."

"Ashley, Doctor?" John wasn't interested in the social pleasantries that most people engaged in, particularly not when the condition of his daughter was still unknown.

Owen gestured for them to follow him down the short flight of stairs. "As per Jack's orders I haven't done anything but monitor her condition." He told them as the went down the steps, but neither Helen nor John were listening. Because the steps curved they could see all of the room from almost the moment they stepped into it.

There, on the bed, lay their daughter. Her nails were still the claws of a vampire, her skin reddened with the remains of the burns and her hair cut at odd angles where the burnt sections had no doubt been cut away. But she was Ashley and the steady rise and fall of her chest proved that she was very much alive.

Helen stepped forward first brushing her fingers though her daughter's hair, smoothing it down just as she did when she was a little girl while at the same time assuring herself that this was no hallucination, heaven knows she's had enough of those in the week since they though Ashley had died. She felt John come up behind her and put one arm around her shoulders while he too reach out to touch their daughter.

The moment seemed almost too good to be true to Helen who surreptitiously pinched her arm to make sure that this wasn't some perfect dream. John caught her action, "I assure you Helen, this is no dream unless I share it." John whispered softly in her ear. "I too see our daughter, laid before us. As beautiful and alive as she ever was. But is she Ashley or is she what they made her?" As one the parents turned to look at Owen who was standing on the other side of the bed.

"There are some residual drugs in her system." He told them looking at the chart, "Nasty ones too and our scans revealed a creature of some sort attached to her brain stem." He handed the clipboard with the results to Helen.

"I've seen this creature before, the Cabal used it to control my father and Will. I was able to remove both successfully." Helen told them, "If you will assist me doctor?"

"Of course."

"Perhaps I should bow out at this point, leave the experts to their work." John suggested.

"I would like you here for the operation John." Helen told him, "And when she wakes up, which according to Dr Harper's readings should be in about half an hour or so. She needs to be conscious for the operation."

"As you wish." John promised, "But perhaps first I should return to the Sanctuary to inform them of the news, they are no doubt anxious to hear what is happening."

"That would be a good idea John, thank you for thinking of it."

"Then I will return shortly." He said and teleported away.

"That will take some getting used to." Owen muttered

"It did, but it has been quite a while since anything about John surprised me." Helen said, "Now Owen, one of the most difficult aspects of removing this creature is that it has a dead man switch which means that if we make even the slightest error it could paralyse or kill Ashley."

Owen listened carefully as Dr Magnus explained the details of the operation to him, even though he would only be required to assist he wanted to fully understand in case she needed him to take over. Performing an operation on strangers was one thing, performing it on your own daughter was something entirely different.

She was just pointing out the kill switch mechanism when they were interrupted by Ianto. "Report on the drugs in her system." Ianto said handing the folder to Owen, "Some pretty heavy duty stuff there and I had to contact Martha for a few of them, she says they're designer drugs and gave a good guess on what the effects would be."

Owen flipped open the report and scanned the top pages where Ianto had listed the drugs and their most typical effects and uses, the later pages in the report went into more detail on each of the drugs. "Looks like most of these were designed to control her behaviour, prevent her from questioning or disobeying orders." He scanned further down the page. "From the amount still in her system and the rate it's been metabolised I'd say the original dose for most of these was thirty or more times higher than the legal dose. This one." He pointed to one of the compounds, "Is still at levels that are twice the legal dosage and she's hasn't been drugged nearly over a week and a half."

Dr Magnus took the report from him, "The original dose must had been more than a hundred times the usual amount, at those level we also have to consider tissue and organ damage from overdose. Some of these are usually used in combination with behavioural conditioning. So we could be looking at psychological issues as well." She turned to Ianto, "Jack mentioned that he has a technology expert on staff, I have something I'd like to discuss with him if that's possible."

"Its a woman." Ianto corrected, "I'll get her."

"Thank you, if there is any psychological conditioning in place then she may still be dangerous, to herself and us."

"Maybe not." Owen suggested, "She was able to break through the drugs and whatever conditioning she had been given, it was the only way should could have saved you."

"I still want her to talk to Will, he's the psychologist on my staff." She explained.

"Alright." Owen agreed, not particularly liking shrinks of any description. He'd had to talk to one after Katie's death and that had been one too many. "So after you've got the creepy insect out, how do you propose to treat the rest? Because those nails are seriously dangerous"

"Yes you saw the bodies John and Nikola left behind." Helen said, "I have previous treated people in whom the Cabal had created abnormalities that should not have existed and I was able to create a series of treatments that removed those abnormalities. However the additional issue in Ashley's case is that she was an abnormal to begin with, though admittedly she had never shown any of the abilities that the Cabal brought to the surface. With time I believe that I can remove most of the abnormalities that she did not inherit from either myself or John, the rest she will have to learn to use."

"And that worries you?" Owen asked, he was not the most perceptive member of the team, not by a long shot. But when it came to the concerns of a fellow doctor he could pick up on them as easily as Gwen would have.

"His abilities drove John to madness, mayhem and murder, I fear they may do the same to my daughter."

"Yeah but this time you know its a possibility and you know what warning signs to look out for." Owen reminded her, "And I'm sure Druitt will help, he'd know the warning signs even better."

"You are right Dr Harper, however before any of that can be a concern we must first remove the controlling insect."

"Right." Owen agreed, "I think we were at the kill switch." He pointed in the place on the scan image of the insect and Helen began explaining how it was connected and how they would remove it.

John was actually slightly surprised that the EM shield had not been put back up and so he was able to teleport right into Helen's office. He was only faintly surprised to see that the original three inhabitants were still there and had been joined by Kate Freelander. The young woman was reading what looked like some sort of trashy novel, Henry Foss was doing something on his computer tablet that would no doubt baffle John, Will was reading and making notes on a report of some kind and the Big Guy was cleaning the already immaculate, at least as far as John could tell, office.

In fact it looked more like they had each found an excuse to remain in the one place that it was mostly likely he and Helen would return to.

Will, unsurprisingly, was the first to notice his return but in less than a second John felt four pairs of eyes resting on him enquiringly. "It is Ashley, she's alive."

Relief was the main emotion on the faces of the three men, Kate only registered interest since she hadn't actually known Ashley as anything but an enemy.

"But is she Ashley or is she that thing the Cabal turned her into?" Henry asked.

"She's unconscious and there are residual drugs in her system as well as an insect in her neck that Helen says is the same as the Cabal used to control her father and you Dr Zimmerman." Though how exactly Doctor Magnus Senior was still alive John hadn't at the time thought to ask. "They are preparing for surgery now."

"When can we see her?" The Big Guy asked.

"Soon I hope." John told them, "Helen will not want to move her until she is sure that it is safe, for Ashley and the residents here."

"Then you can take us to her." Will said.

"After the surgery perhaps, but Helen requested my return as soon as possible, I will return with more news." Before anyone could say anything he teleported away and so didn't hear Will wondering is he's manners were the product of the Source Blood or if he'd been that abrupt before.

* * *

AN: Ok, so next update will be a bit shorter and hopefully on Sunday, I got my flight details today and I leave in less then a month so I really needto get cracking on this. Hopefully I won't forget this time *blushes* or if I do hopefully Ash will poke me and remind me.


	4. Chapter 3

AN: Here's the next chapter and I am still on target for getting this all up before I leave for Peru. This is a long chapter mainly because I couldn't find anywhere sooner to cut it. Just a little warning, this chapter does have mentions of medical procedures and surgary.

* * *

Helen and Owen were still discussing the operation and the drugs that Ashley had been under when they were interrupted by a soft cough. Both looked up as Ianto stepped up to the the railing that encircled the upper level and the stairs of the autopsy bay, with him was a Japanese woman. "This is Toshiko Sato, our technology expert." Ianto introduced her.

Toshiko smiled at her, "Ianto said that you needed some technology wizardry?"

"Yes Toshiko, may I call you that?" She nodded and Helen continued, "Are you familiar with the concept of an EM shield?"

"A continuous electromagnetic pulse that can be used like a curtain to block or interfere with surveillance devices." Tosh answered easily.

"Exactly, it is also the only thing that can interfere with John and Ashley's teleporting." Helen explained, "I need you to set one up for me, if she's not Ashley it will contain her until we can work out what to do, I fear she may be able to teleport out of the restraints or find some other way to escape them."

Tosh nodded, "Should be fairly simple to create one, we already have the equipment and software in place."

"She got through one before." Helen warned her.

"Then I'll put up two on different frequencies, one around the main level of the Hub and another around the entire base." Tosh said, "Even if she makes it through the first one, the second should contain her within the base."

"Thank you, but please do not activate it until John returns."

"Of course." Tosh said with a nod and returned her station.

"If you need to contain her then I'm sure we have some portable force fields around here somewhere." Ianto said, "We sometimes use then to contain hostile aliens but they've never been tested against someone like her."

"Yes, thank you Ianto." Helen said with a smile, "They could be very useful if you could find them."

"I'll get right on it." Ianto promised and departed.

Owen and Helen returned to their work only to be interrupted a few minutes later by Jack. "Hows it going?"

"Faster if people would quit interrupting us." Owen complained.

"Very well actually." Helen told him, "We are primarily waiting on Ashley's waking as I would prefer her awake for the procedure. Your Ianto and Toshiko are preparing some security in case she is not in her right mind when she does awake but I would also prefer it if you saw that your team were armed."

Jack nodded and left to inform his team but before the doctors could get back to their preparations a flash of red announced John's arrival. "Ah, John good. How is everyone at the Sanctuary?"

"Impatient to be here." John told her, "I said that perhaps after the operation, with your permission of course, I could bring them."

"If everything goes well." Helen said, "I was beginning to worry you were gone so long."

"Relax Helen, I was merely tracking down Tesla and informing him of Ashley's survival, as interesting as it would be to see his face the next time he decided to pay the Sanctuary a visit."

"Yes that would be amusing." Helen agreed.

"Still the expression on his face when I told him was satisfactory enough, he seemed to believe I was once again loosing my mind, this time by a different route."

"Yes I imagine he did." Helen said, "John, Dr Harper and I need to make some preparations for the surgery, I thought perhaps you would sit with her while we do so."

"I would like that very much." John said as he pulled the stool up to the side of Ashley's bed, she looked peaceful, more peaceful than he had ever seen her. That said he did seem to have a habit of bringing out the worse in her, he was a killer and thus embodied everything she hated and also everything she feared she would become.

"You are so beautiful." He whispered softly, stroking her already smooth hair. "So like your mother when we first met, sometimes I wonder what would have happened if we had never experimented with the Source Blood. You would have been born in 1889, and you would have hated it. Floor length dresses and corsets, people were shocked and appalled that your mother even dared audit courses at Oxford let alone that she wanted to be a doctor. You my dear would have been a scandal beyond proportion."

John allowed himself a rare smile at the idea of his loud and out spoken daughter forced to conform to the social norms of the turn of the last century, no doubt she would have been even worse at it than her mother had been. Certainly she would have been one of the Suffragettes, and probably not one of the ones just carrying a placard either. He was equally sure that she would still have followed her mother into her work with abnormals.

"I am sorry my child." He said quietly, "It is because of me that they were able to do this to you, madness runs in my family, bloodlust. Because of what I gave you they were able to do this but I promise you, I will do everything in my power to help you through this, if you will allow it." He pressed a kiss to her forehead, something she would certainly never allow if she was awake.

A soft cough caught his attention and he looked up to see a Japanese woman. "Yes?"

"I'm Toshiko Sato, Dr Magnus asked me to create a EM shield, in case she isn't in her right mind when she wakes, and I just wanted to tell her that I had done so."

"Thank you." John said, "No doubt she asked you not to activate it until I returned."

"She did."

"Then you can activate it and I will tell her once she and Dr Harper return." John promised, the young woman nodded and left, allowing him to turn his attention back to his daughter. He watched her in silence, memorising her features as he had never before had the chance to do. While what he had said to Helen two weeks ago was true, that he regretted what his blood had given their daughter, he had also lied to her when he said that he didn't regret not been there when Ashley took her first steps. Because he did.

He regretted that he had abandoned Helen in favour of madness. He had not even known of her pregnancy but he was certain that it would not have mattered to the Ripper. The John who loved Helen was lost within his alternative personality, the Ripper who hated all women. The Ripper was all that had existed for over a century, a creature willing to risk his daughter for his own survival, until Tesla had unwittingly shocked him back to his senses.

Now the Ripper was gone leaving only John, a man who had more guilt and regret that any man deserved to carry. A man who still loved his former fiancée and their daughter but who equally knew that he would be lucky to be allowed to call one friend and to have the other even speak to him.

Aspects of the Ripper remained in John's personality, namely his quickness to anger and desire to kill. Most recently it had been seen when he and Tesla had laid waste to the heads of the Cabal. But the difference between the late eighteen hundreds and the present was that this time John recognised the danger of that anger and he worked to control it. And if need be he would teach his daughter that control and help her as much as she needed to allow her to be the Ashley her mother had known once again.

Sometimes though his anger and rage felt like a beast inside him, clawing at his control and whispering things in his mind. Recently it had been growing stronger, with each kill that voice had become louder and the claws sharper. He knew he needed to stop killing but he hadn't been able to, not until his daughter had been avenged. Now though he feared that he might not be able to stop, and he wanted to, God more than anything did he want to stop killing but there was something inside him, something evil that hungered for blood and death. He repressed it, forced it away, hide it so that no one could see it, not even Helen. Especially not Helen. He wanted to be the man she had once loved but he feared that man had died along with the whores of White Chapel.

He would continue to fight it, for the sake of his one time fiancée and daughter, even though he feared it would be a futile battle in the end, he would fight it. For Helen and Ashley.

Helen smiled slightly when she returned to find John sitting beside their daughter, exactly as any father would sit at the bed side of his sick daughter. "John."

"Helen, there has been no change that I can see." He told her, "Ms Sato asked me to inform you that she has activated the EM shield."

"Thank you John." Helen said as she walked down the stairs, she was wearing a white lab coat over he black shirt and blouse she had been wearing when they arrived. She looked at the readings on the monitors, although John had been schooled in anatomy and physiology his knowledge was more than a century out of date so he deferred to her greater wisdom.

"The drugs are disappearing from her system exactly as expected." Helen told him turning away from the monitor to check Ashley, "And see here, the burns have almost healed completely." She was right, the redness a

had all but faded from Ashley's skin leaving her natural pale skin tone behind. "She should be waking soon." She looked up to see Jack standing at the railing, "Are all the security measures in place?"

"A double EM shield, a force field across the doorway, Ashley's restrained and everyone is armed." Jack promised her, "I just hope we don't need all that."

"So do I Jack." Helen said. He nodded to her and left the small family alone. Helen turned her attention back to Ashley. "Ashley love, can you hear me?" The girl on the bed stirred ever so slightly and Helen's excited eyes meet John's. "Ashley, it's time to wake up, come on." She moved more and Helen encouraged her, "That's it open your eyes, its safe, you're safe now."

Both Ashley's parents held their breath as she struggled to open her eyes, after a minute or two she finally succeeded and Helen almost cried at the sight of her daughter's beautiful blue eyes. "Mom?"

"Yes Ashley."

She tried to move and realised she was retrained at the wrist and ankle. "What's going on? Where am I?"

"Just lay still for a moment." Helen advised placing a hand on Ashley's shoulder. "What's the last thing you remember?"

Ashley groaned, "My head hurts." She complained. "I remember pain? Burning?" Ashley sounded confused

"That would be a side effect of trying to teleport through an EM shield." John told her.

Ashley turned her head to the other side and John was just as relived to see her blue eyes has Helen had been, "Dad?" John was shocked at the familiar title she used to address him.

"Yes Ashley, what else do you remember?" John pressed.

Ashley's eyes clouded with pain as the memories came flooding back, "Oh god! Oh shit! Mom you gotta lock me up, put me in the SHU and leave me there."

"Ashley just relax." Helen pressed her hand harder against Ashley's shoulder, holding her to the bed. "Nothing that happened was your fault, now I need you to stay calm for the moment. Do you remember the insect the Cabal used to control my father, Will and the other fighters?"

Ashley nodded.

"You have one as well, I think that they combined it with drugs to control you, to force you to do things you didn't want to do." Helen continued, "We're going to remove it."

"What about the rest?" Ashley asked anxiously, moving her fingers so that the vampiric nails taped against the side of the table to make it clear exactly what she meant.

"I think I can remove the worse of the alterations, like I did with the humans in the Cabal fight club." Helen assured her, "But some of what the Cabal did was awaking abnormalities that were already in your genetic code, I can't do anything about that."

Ashley took a deep breath, "You mean the teleporting?"

"Among other things." John told her, "Just relax for now, we can talk afterwards."

Ashley finally looked past her parents and realised that she wasn't anywhere familiar. "Where are we?"

John and Helen both looked up as they heard the force field across the entrance deactivate and Jack stepped up to the rail, "You landed in my basement."

Ashley twisted on the table, trying to see who it was but the restraints prevented her from doing so, "Who's that? Uncle Jack? Is that you?"

Jack jogged down the stairs and hovered over Helen's shoulder. "Hey kiddo, you're looking better, still I think you might need a manicure."

Ashley smiled slightly, "This your base?"

"Of course."

"Ashley I think your subconscious brought you to the safest place that was left, somewhere that could contain you." Helen suggested.

Ashley nodded, "I just wanted to keep you safe mom."

Jack looked up and waved to Owen to join them, "Ash, this is Dr Owen Harper he's going to help with the operation."

Ashley nodded. "We need to prepare for the operation." Helen told her, stroking her hair, "I'm going to release you now since you need to be on your side for the operation."

"No mom, don't please!" Ashley begged.

"Why ever not?" Helen asked thoroughly confused by her daughters actions.

"There's this burning desire in the back of my mind, like a little voice telling me to kill you both," She looked between her parents. "I don't know if I can stop it if you let me go."

This John understood all to well. "I know, I have felt it too. But you are stronger than I was Ashley, you will not give in because you don't want to hurt your mother and I don't think you want to kill me either."

Ashley shook her head, "Hurt maybe but not kill, and I want a rematch."

"As you wish. Now may we release you? I assure you that everyone here is armed and there is a double EM shield up."

"Jack handed out the good stuff." Owen said holding his lab coat aside to reveal the weapon strapped to his hip. "This could bring down a rampaging elephant with one shot."

"Ashley trust me." Jack said, "I won't let you hurt them."

Ashley looked at her god-father for a long minute and then nodded, Helen unfastened the restraint on her side while John did the other side and Jack her feet.

"How do you feel now?" John asked.

"The desire to kill is stronger but I won't let it win." She said determinedly, "But please don't leave me alone, it'll be harder to resist if I'm alone."

"Of course not darling, now Dr Harper and need to check the equipment for the surgery, but we'll be back soon."

"Shouldn't be more than a few minutes." Owen reassured her as she followed Helen up the stairs, Jack to departed muttering something about not liking operations leaving Ashley alone with her father.

"How much do you remember?" John asked her hesitantly. He wasn't exactly sure how to approach his daughter, the few times they had met had involved outright hostility her part and occasionally kidnapping on his. Now he was alone with her and he wasn't quite sure what to say.

"Too much." Ashley said softly, "How's your chest?" She seemed at as much of a loss as he was about what to say.

John offered her a small smile, "It healed, you did less damage than Tesla did. Your mother's arm is also fine." He assure her before she could ask.

"I didn't want to hurt anyone." Ashley said softly then continued, "Does everyone else know I'm alive?" She seemed to be trying to keep her mind off the up coming surgery and John was willing to help her.

"Your mother told them when she received the call and I went to inform them that it was indeed you. Regrettably Tesla now believes that I have lost my mind.

Helen and Owen returned then, "Alright Ashley, I'm going to give you drug to slow your healing, otherwise the incision will close up before I can operate. There is also a local anaesthetic which should reduce the pain but keep you conscious.."

"Like you did with granddad." She said, "I really wish I hadn't seen what you're going to do."

"I know sweetheart." Helen said injecting her neck then she turned her attention to John, "Are you staying?"

He wanted to but not if it made Ashley uncomfortable. "I would like to, if Ashley has no objections?"

Ashley shook her head, at that exact moment she wanted as many familiar people around her as possible and that included the father who had once fed her to giant iguana. Though she couldn't remember everything that had happened, she did remember, in those rare moments when her mind was her own, wanting her family to find her. Wanting her father to appear and take her back home to her mom and Henry, Will and the Big Guy. She tried not to remember anything really but she remembered wanting her family, as messed up as it was.

"Than I will stay."

Helen nodded, "As you wish," She threw him a lab coat and surgical mask, "Put those on. Ashley, I need you to lay on your side." She did as she was told and Helen fastened her daughters hair in a high pony tail before putting a surgical cap over it to keep any stray hairs away from the site of the operation. "Now Ashley I need you to tell me if you feel any pain."

"Yes mom." Ashley promised as Helen picked up the scalpel and pressed it against Ashley's neck.

"Can you feel that?"

"No."

Helen pressed the scalpel in further until it broke the skin, "And that?"

"No mom." Ashley promised.

"Good, the anaesthetic had taken effect, now you have to stay as still as possible Ashley."

"Sure mom." Ashley said, trying very hard not to think about what her mother was doing. After what had happened with the Cabal Ashley had had enough of doctors and medical procedures, it was only the fact that it was her mother that was allowing her to remain on the bed rather than trying to jump up and run, or teleport, as far away as she could. Seeking to distract herself she looked up at her father who was still standing beside her, "So how'd you get that scar on your cheek?"

John was surprised at the question, it wasn't something anyone had ever actually asked him. Helen would almost certainly have known, James had no doubt deduced it and Nikola's ego was too big to be concerned with anyone bar himself. "You are a far better shot than your mother was at your age." He told her, "If you were attempting to put a bullet in my head you would not come so close and failed to kill me."

"John, back then most women of my class and upbringing would have been hard pressed to find the trigger on a gun let alone point it at someone." Helen abolished him.

"I beg your forgiveness then." John said, "But your mother is correct Ashley, had I turned or teleported a fraction of a second later I would not be standing here."

"Ashley, I've uncovered the insect, I'm going to begin tying off the legs now."

"You know I really can live without the commentary mom." She replied then turned her attention to John, "So mom was a bit of a rebel?" Ashley asked, trying to keep him talking to help keep her mind off the fact that her mother was removing a creepy controlling insect from the back of her neck.

"Not as you would think of it." John said, "But I remember my surprise at seeing her in my class for the first time. I was amazed that a woman would have the audacity to even audit a course in comparative anatomy."

"How did you meet then?" Ashley asked.

John looked up and met Helen's eyes for a moment, she nodded to him so he explained. "It was in one of the Oxford libraries, I was searching for a book I needed and I came across you mother, seated at a desk and making notes from the object of my quest. When I asked her for the book, she told me that I needed to wait until she had finished. I was shocked at her tone and I reminded her that I was a student of the collage and there for should have priority over a woman."

"Which was a mistake." Helen commented as she motioned to Owen to assist her, most of her mind still on the task at hand.

"Indeed it was." John admitted. He turned his attention back to Ashley. "I was then treated to a short lecture on the idiocy of collage administrators who seemed to believe that it was still the Dark Ages rather than approaching the twentieth century and refused to allow her to enrol simply because of her gender. I was amazed to hear her cite contemporary theory to back up her claims that women should have equal access to such learning as the collage provided. By the time she was finished I had quite forgotten why I had interrupted her in the first place."

Ashley smiled at that.

"She proceeded to assure me that she would only be another half an hour with the book and that I might use it as soon as she was finished, then she calmly returned to her notes as if I had never interrupted her."

"What did you do?" Ashley asked.

"There was nothing else I could do, I couldn't very well take the book from a lady so I left and when I returned in half an hour your mother was waiting for me with her things all packed away and the library book closed on the table beside her. That was when I finally introduced myself and invited her to take a turn about the grounds with me. As we walked I remember asking her why she chose to audit the courses even knowing that she would never be allowed to gain her degree. She smiled and said that she learnt because she wished to understand the world and she did not require a piece of paper to prove her learning to herself. She also reminded me that rules could change. I was captivated by her."

"So when did you form The Five?" Ashley asked, the story was doing a very good job of taking her mind off the surgery and the accompanying pain every time the creature moved, plus her mother never wanted to talk about the old days. James Watson had been as bad when he was alive, never wanting to talk about their time at Oxford. Now she knew why, because neither her mother nor James wanted to be reminded of how it ended.

"I first introduced your mother to my friend James Watson in the March after we met. They instantly became good friends and I must confess I was jealous, Helen was able to keep up with James's mind far better than I was and he was able to understand the subtle complexities of the human body that so fascinated her but always seemed to be beyond my grasp."

"You never needed to worry John, all James was and ever has been to me is a very dear friend." Helen assured him, proving that she had been listening to his narrative even when she was concentrating on the operation.

"Helen you have always surround yourself by hansom or intelligent men and yet you fail to see the attraction you hold to them."

Owen caught and correctly interpreted the look John shot towards the main part of the hub, "Oh I wouldn't worry there mate, Jack's boyfriend would object."

"His boyfriend?" John raised an eyebrow.

"This is the twenty-first century John, try to keep up." Helen reminded him.

"As James and I pointed out to young William, we had to be dragged by the scruff of our necks into the twentieth, please allow me a small period of grace in these matters."

Even over the surgical mask she wore John could see the smile in Helen's eyes, then she turned sober, "Ashley I've reached the front pair."

"Mom, I'm scared."

"I know you are, but it will be alright." Helen assured her as she began the most delicate phase of the operation. Ashley gasped as the creature responded to Helen's actions by trying to bury itself deeper into her neck.

"Helen she's in pain, can't you give her something?" John asked.

"No John, I need her awake, her responses act as a warning about the creature's movements."

John nodded, but he really didn't like it. He crouched down on the floor beside Ashley so that his head was level with hers and took her hand in his without any thought for the long vampiric claws that she possessed With his other hand he stroked her forehead. "It will be alright Ashley."

She groaned in pain and squeezed John's hand, just as her mother had so many decades earlier during the first fateful experiment with the Source Blood. Neither of them noticed when her claws nicked the skin of his hand. For the first time John truly felt like Ashley's father; this was what it meant to be a father, holding her hand when she needed him. This was what his madness had cost him He knew that it was unlikely that Ashley would ever let him get so close again so he committed to memory exactly what it felt like.

Helen's voice interrupted his thoughts, "I've isolated the cut site." She told them, Ashley whimpered and squeezed his hand again. John looked up at Helen and could see the question that wasn't really a question in her eyes. Should she make the cut knowing it could kill Ashley? Did he agree with her? There was no answer except yes and they both knew it but at the same time it made John's heart just a little lighter to know that she wanted, that she even looked for, his support on this.

He gave a single sharp nod and watched as Helen took a deep breath. A moment later Ashley asked nervously, "Mom, what's going on?"

"It's done Ashley." Helen told her taking the tweezers from Owen, "Doctor Harper would you care for a new pet to study?"

"Nothing better to do at the moment." He replied and held out a specimen jar, "Lord that is one ugly looking bug." He added as Helen deposited the creature in the container and secured the lid, "Sorta looks like a cockroach." He looked back up at Helen, "Do you need me to help finish up?"

"No thank you Owen." Helen said, "You can go study it." Owen nodded and headed up the stairs to the main level, pulling off his mask as he did so.

"Hey Tosh, you have to see this." John could hear him moving further away and then the footsteps as several other people converged on him followed by an expression of disgust from a Welsh sounding woman.

Meanwhile Helen was talking to Ashley, "How do you feel darling?"

"Like me again, just me."

John gave her a small smile, a genuine one. "I know that feeling."

"I'll just close up the incision." Helen told her.

"Now that part I'm more familiar with." Ashley said.

"For some reason I'm not surprised." John said, "But your mother always did have a very good eye for stitches, usually left almost invisible scars. I remember one particular night."

"John."

"No mom, this I want to hear." Ashley insisted.

"We were due to graduate in just few weeks and we were out celebrating."

"By we he means the men." Helen said, "It wasn't suitable for a well breed woman to join them in touring the public houses, just to patch them up afterwards."

"What happened?" Ashley asked.

"A matter of honour." John told her, "Specifically Helen's. A group of men implied that she was unchaste."

"I seem to remember that I was, the proof is in front of us." Helen reminded him, causing Ashley to laugh slightly.

"Not at that point you weren't, we were not even engaged. Besides they implied worse than we did." He said and then turned his attention back to Ashley. "As Helen's friends we obviously couldn't just stand by and allow the insult to pass. James allowed them then chance to apologise, when they refused Tesla and I took matters into our own hands, Nigel and James joined in and eventually all of us were thrown out."

"And they staggered back to my father's house."

"Who was most certainly not impressed with our state until we told him the reason behind it, even then he was still not impress that we were as inebriated as we were. In fact I am amazed he gave his consent to my marrying you after that." He added looking up at her.

"Because he knew that I loved you," Helen said softly, John tried not to smile too much but it was good to hear that she had once loved him even as it caused him to wonder if she still did.

"Well this is certainly interesting." Ashley said, "And for some reason faintly traumatic."

"Less of that." Helen said, "There were quite few late night calls and patch ups, not all to do with your job, in fact I believe there were one or two from the police. John in some respects she is very much your daughter."

"Oh?"

"Yes." Helen said as she continued to stitch up the incision. "Ashley was arrested for drunk and disorderly."

"They started it." The girl in question protested, "I just finished it."

"By sending four of them to the ER."

"Hey the police never charged me."

"Only because they refused to believe that a blond twenty-one year old could do that much damage."

"And none of the men wanted to admit they were beat by a girl."

John watched the byplay sensing that this was a fairly typical occurrence between mother and daughter, he wished that he could be apart of it instead of an outsider observing but he had thrown that chance away more than a century earlier.

"There." Helen said, "I'll just put a dressing on and you'll be good." `

"Owen said you were nearly done." Helen and John looked up to see Ianto standing by the railing, "I was just going to order dinner for the team, will you be joining us?"

"If it's not too much trouble." Helen said, "And I would like to bring the rest of my staff here to see Ashley, I don't want to move her until we're sure she's stable, physically and mentally." She stroked Ashley's hair as she said it. John agreed whole heartedly with her, he knew the effect that teleportation had on his own mind, even now it felt as though with each jump another tiny fracture appeared in his control over his inner beast. They didn't know what the effect of him teleporting her would be but the precarious state of Ashley's mind at present meant that it would be better not to risk it and so her remaining in Cardiff for a while seemed be the most advisable course of action.

"I can check with Jack if you'd like but it shouldn't be a problem." Ianto assured them, "I'll order a full spread for dinner then."

"He has such a cool accent." Ashley said after Ianto had left.

"Yes." Helen concurred. "Jack agrees."

Ashley nearly jerked upright at that but John's hand hand on her shoulder prevented her from doing so. "Serious? He's with Jack? But I though he said never again, not after."

Helen interrupted her, "Yes he did however fate does not always respect the wishes of mere humans." She met John's gaze as she said the last part and in his eyes she could see regret, fate had indeed not listened to their wishes. If it had then they would not be where they were. She knew the regret in his eyes was mirrored in her own, she wished they could go back to how they had once been. But events had stolen the sweet innocence and naivety of that early relationship and nothing could undo it. "There, finished." Helen added as she affixed a dressing to Ashley's neck. "I'll just go clean up and then I'll be right back sweetheart."

Ashley nodded and Helen left. "You might prefer to lay on your side for the moment," John suggested, "Your neck is going to be very tender for a while, even with accelerated healing."

"Yeah, once the drug is out of my system."

"You have a lot of drugs in there at the moment, it will take some time." John noticed that she was still holding his hand but didn't comment on it, he liked the idea that his daughter needed him even knowing that she really didn't. "Are you feeling more yourself now?"

Ashley tried to nod and winced as the action pulled the fresh stitches in the back of her neck so she was forced to settle for a verbal answer. "Yes, but I still remember." She closed her eyes for a moment, "And it makes me sick, I killed so many defenceless residents. I tried to kill you and mom, I almost did, if it hadn't been for the woman I might have killed mom!"

"Hush now Ashley." John said soothingly while mentally thanking Kate Freelander, surely the woman Ashley spoke of, for saving Helen from her daughter and Ashley from the memory of killing her mother. "None of it was your fault. You bare even less fault than I do for not controlling The Ripper. You were changed through no fault of your own, the guilt belongs to Dana Whitcomb and others like her who used you and hurt you."

"Is she dead?"

John marvelled at how insightful Ashley could be. "Your mother did not approve but Tesla and I have taken out the entire leadership of the Cabal. You have no need to fear them again."

"Good." Ashley said firmly with such satisfied vengeance in her tone that John worried about her even as he recognised it as the mirror of his own feelings. "Do you really think mom can fix me? She fixed Will but he's human, I wasn't no matter how much I pretended I was."

"The Source Blood activated dormant abnormalities, such as my teleporting and your mother's longevity. If you had the vampire traits in your blood then so would we and the Source Blood would have activated those abnormalities the same as it did in Tesla."

"I never knew Jack the Ripper was a scientist." Ashley commented.

"I wasn't but enough time around your mother and I gained a good understanding of the biological world though it is likely a century out of date now." John shook his head, "No what I said before was how Helen explained it to me when I asked the same question you did."

"But what is you both carried bits of the vampire abnormality and it only came out in my cause I got both copies like haemophilia."

Genetics hadn't even been discovered when he was at Oxford, in fact it had been less than three decades since Darwin had proposed his idea of evolution and inheritance but time with Helen Magnus and James Watson would give any man a rough grasp of the basis of inheritance. "I doubt that Ashley." John assured her, "It seems far too convenient to me that in addition to everything else you just happened to have a hidden abnormality that would be so useful to the Cabal. Besides that, what are the chances that three of the Five were descended from vampires? No it is far more likely that it is the result of something the Cabal extracted from the Source Blood."

John looked up hearing the click of Helen's heels as she approached, "Your mother is coming and I am sure she can explain everything far better than I." He looked up to see Helen watching them. "I must return to the Sanctuary." He told them both, "There are many there who are no doubt anxious about Ashley." He placed a small kiss on Ashley's forehead and was pleased that she didn't pull away or say anything, perhaps his dream about their been family could become true after all. At least for as long as he could hold his madness at bay.

Regretfully he pulled his hand from Ashley's and took a step away from her bed but before he could teleport Helen said. "Thank you John."

"I am her father Helen, you will never need to thank me for this." He restrained himself from adding that for Helen he would happily jump off the White Cliffs of Dover if she requested it, something Nigel and Tesla had taken great delight in teasing him about while they were at Oxford.

With the thought that very little had changed on his side of their relationship with regards to feelings, John teleported himself to Helen's office. Once again finding it well populated, even more so than on his previous visit. It seemed that word about Ashley had reached the other residents of the Sanctuary and several of them had joined the main staff in Helen's office.

Each face looked expectantly at him when he appeared but no one spoke. "Ashley came through the surgery well and is much more herself." He had to stop because of the excited cheering that went through the office. John continued once the excitement had died down a little, "Helen does not wish to move her until she is sure that her mental condition is as stable as her physical one."

"Can we see her?" The Big Guy asked.

"Helen had requested that I transport you, Mr Foss and Dr Zimmerman to Cardiff, assuming we can trust Ms Freelander not to attempt to sell the entire population of the Sanctuary while you are gone."

"Hey!" Was in indignant exclamation from the woman in question.

"I'm sure everything will be fine." Will said, Kate was well on her way to becoming a full member of staff but what the return of Ashley would mean for that was unknown. Still John was carrying a small grudge for her involvement in the same Cabal that had kidnapped, and they thought killed, his daughter. "Kate could you make sure that all of the residents know the good news, don't forget Sally, and that the other Sanctuaries are informed. Just give them the basics and tell them Dr Magnus will give them a full briefing when she has a chance."

"Sure." Kate said, swinging her legs down from where she had been sitting with them draped over the arm of a chair while reading her book. John wondered just how much the literature standards had fallen since his time, between the front cover and the title 'Bengal's Heart' he doubted the contents could be considered serious or thought provoking in anyway.

Kate left the room and the residents that had gathered there followed her, the mood still very much one of celebration. Those resident who had lived there for years had watched Ashley grow up and she was generally very popular with those who were allowed to roam free. The ones in the SHU was an entirely different matter.

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More up soon, please leave a reveiw?


	5. Chapter 4

AN: Thank you to everyone that reviewed, here's your next chapter

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"Oh I hate that." Will muttered as Druitt teleported him and Henry to Cardiff, Druitt disappeared almost immediately to fetch the Big Guy.

"Henry, Will." Helen walked over to them. As she greeted them Will's trained eyes took in the place where he found himself. A large room, split over several levels, with technology scattered around in such a haphazard way that he was reminded of Henry's work space at the Sanctuary. On the tiles of the wall above a battered sofa was the word 'Torchwood', in case he had any doubts about where he was

There were five people scattered around the base, two women and three men. One of the women was typing away at a very impressive computer set up, though she snuck occasional peeks over at them, the second woman also seemed focused on her computer monitor and the paperwork beside her but at the same time she seemed a little nervous and uncomfortable. Of the three men, the oldest was clearly in charge and Will was prepared to bet he was Magnus's old friend Captain Harkness, his clothing was reminiscent of the 1940s and he had an air of been in charge, as though he was used to people listening to him. Magnus had the same air about her, it made disobeying feel wrong. The second man was clearly a doctor, his lab coat was a give away as was the intensity with which he was studying a specimen in a jar at his desk, no doubt the controlling insect that has been taken from Ashley. Still there was something strange that he couldn't quite put his finger on, something off about the other man, though the only physical evidence was the broken finger on his left hand. The final man was wearing a suit that should have made him stick out like a sore thumb in the relax and disordered atmosphere of the base but somehow he fitted in just fine. Will caught a look exchanged between him and Harkness that made him suspect that there was more going on there than business.

"Will." Magnus's voice pulled him back, she and Henry were both standing next to an archway with the ominous sign, 'autopsy bay' above it. "Are you joining us?"

"Sorry." He said as he walked over to join them.

"Profiling again?" Helen said with a smile, it was the first proper smile Will had seen in months, probably since Ashley had been taken.

"I can't help it." Will said as he joined her, Henry hadn't bothered waiting for them and was already in the autopsy bay talking to Ashley.

"Anything interesting?" Magnus asked, clearly curious about what Will had managed to deduce about her friend's team.

"The Asian woman is very dedicated to her work, the other woman is uncomfortable, probably about one of us. I'd assume Druitt. There's something very off about their doctor but I'm not sure what and your friend Harkness is involved with the man in the suit, who is probably the only reason the rest aren't drowning in their own rubbish and unfiled paperwork."

"Right on all counts." Magnus said with another smile, "Come and see Ashley." She lead him down the curving stairs and Ashley turned to smile at them as they arrived.

She was sitting up on an exam chair similar to what they had at the Sanctuary, though lacking in restraints which was to be expected since from the sign above the entrance the occupant of the table to usually lacking a heart beat. There was a clean white bandage wrapped around her neck and she was wearing hospital scrubs, which she was no doubt very unhappy about. There were still patches of faint red on her extremities and her long blond hair had been cut unevenly, suggesting to Will that her jump through the EM shield had left her with severe burns. She was also clearly underweight and her eyes were, unsurprisingly, haunted.

But she was Ashley.

"Hey Will." She said as she saw him.

"You're looking better." He said as she hugged him.

"It'd be hard to look any worse." She pointed out.

"Ashley." She looked up to see the Big Guy and Druitt standing on the upper level.

"Hey Big Guy." Ashley said clearly very glad to see him. He made his way down the steps and hugged her as well, then ruffled her hair.

"I missed you." He told her with great affection in his voice.

"I missed you too, all of you." She said, looking around her friends and family, Druitt had made his way down the stairs to stand behind Magnus. "I wanted to come home."

"You did." Henry told her.

Meanwhile Helen said to John in a low voice, "You took your time returning."

"Your manservant doesn't like me very much, or trust me."

"He is very protective of Ashley and I." Helen agreed. "And you were an enemy far longer than you have been a friend."

"I am more than a friend Helen." Her breath caught but before she could say anything John continued and then she wasn't sure whether or not she was disappointed. "I am Ashley's father, if she forgives me for the giant iguana and kidnapping her."

"She will John." Helen said, "And I need your help with her, I need you to help me tell if there is any danger that she might." Helen paused unsure of how to continue.

"If she is in danger of becoming what I was when I was The Ripper?" John surmised, Helen nodded and John placed his hand on her shoulder. "Of course, whatever I can do to help her you have my word I will do it."

Someone cleared their throat and everyone looked up to see Ianto standing against the railing, "Dinner's arrived and in the conference room, if you'd like to join us?"

"Mom, please?" Ashley begged. Helen hesitated, the doctor in her wanted Ashley to rest but the mother who'd had her daughter taken from her wanted to give her whatever she wanted, at least for a while. "I'll stay sitting down but I really want to get out of here." Ashley glanced around uncomfortably and Helen didn't need the look from Will to know that it was the medical/lab feel of the room that was making her uncomfortable.

"Alright, but I want you to sit down and tell me immediately if you feel ill or uncomfortable." Helen agreed as she moved to her daughters side. Ashley looked very happy and, swung her legs off the chair, setting her feet on the floor and slowly standing. "Any dizziness?"

"No." Ashley assured her, "My legs feel weak, like jello."

"That's to be expected." Helen reassured her, "Try taking a few steps, it will help." Ashley did as she was told and only wavered slightly, Helen had her arm around her daughter's waist just in case she fell but she made it to the stairs. Climbing the stairs a little more tricky but she succeed, however as she was taking the final step out of the autopsy bay her knees gave way and she collapsed.

Before she could hit the floor John was beside her and swept her into his arms. "I'm fine," Ashley insisted, "Put me down."

"You are not fine." John told her as he took a firmer grip on her and followed Ianto towards the conference room. "What you are is as stubborn as your mother."

"Thank you."

"That was not a compliment daughter." John said firmly and heard Helen laugh behind him

"Because you aren't stubborn at all John."

"Not as bad as you who once walked through the streets of Oxford with a badly strained ankle rather than accept aid from her friends."

"We weren't far from my house and the rest of you lived in the collage dorms in the opposite direction." Helen said as if this explained everything.

Henry and Will looked at each other and shrugged, that did sound like the Magnus they knew. In fact Will could easily picture her as a young woman in Victorian England chasing Abnormals in a floor length dress and limping home with the injuries afterwards.

They reached the conference room to find the table was covered in an impressive array of food. Pizza, Chinese, Indian, Mexican. In fact there was just about every type of takeaway the Sanctuary team could think of. "Welcome to Torchwood." Captain Harkness said. "I'm Captain Jack Harkness for those of you who don't already know and this is my team. Doctor Owen Harper our medic, former-PC Gwen Cooper public liaison, Toshiko Sato computer and technical expert, and Ianto Jones Archivist and caretaker. He's the one responsible for all this." He waved his hand over the table.

"Can we keep him?" Henry asked and was instantly cuffed round the back of his head by the Big Guy.

"Since we're doing introductions." Helen said taking her cue as John set Ashley down in an empty chair. "As you know I'm Doctor Helen Magnus, head of the Sanctuary Global Network. My daughter Ashley and her father John Druitt." She gestured towards the chair Ashley occupied and John standing behind her. "Doctor Will Zimmerman, psychologist and profiler. Henry Foss, our computer and technical expert. And last but not least my oldest friend who helps keep my Sanctuary running."

"And who we call Big Guy, since he won't tell us his actual name." That earnt Henry another cuff round the head from the Big Guy.

"Wouldn't worry about it." Owen said, "They only thing we know about his name." And he jerked his thumb in Jack's direction, "Is that it is not Jack Harkness."

"Okay." Jack said turning the topic away from him, "Lets eat while the hot stuff is hot and the cold stuff is cold."

Jack's team took that as an order to dig in and Helen's weren't far behind. Helen filled a plate for her daughter and took it too her. "Here you are."

"Mom," Ashley complained, "You left out all the spicy stuff."

"You haven't eaten in at least a week, possibly longer and I don't know what the Cabal were feeding you." Helen said firmly, "You need to go easy on your stomach first."

"Fine." Ashley said, taking the plate. "But I at least want cake afterwards." She added eyeing the selection of desserts Ianto had ordered, including what looked like a double chocolate cake.

"Of course." Helen said giving her an indulgent smile.

"How does Tesla deal with these?" She complained as she tried to pick up her food only to have her vampiric nails get in the way.

"He learnt to control it, at first it only came out when he was angry." Helen explained.

"Which was very often around me." John commented

Ashley shook her head, "I've had them since I woke up in the lab, I used them to try and escape but I couldn't, I couldn't."

"Hush Ashley." John said placing a hand on her shoulder, "There will be time for that later, for now just try to relax and enjoy yourself."

Taking a deep breath and visibly collecting herself, Ashley nodded and turned her attention back to her plate. Considering the options for a moment she stabbed one of her nails through a spring roll and lifted it to her mouth to take a bite.

"Well that's one way." Helen said with a smile.

Meanwhile Henry had made his way over to Toshiko, "So you're responsible for all the computers out there?" He asked pointing back towards the main part of the Hub.

"Well most the of the basic hardware was here when I started." Toshiko said with a small smiled, "But I redesigned some of the systems and wrote the rift monitor program."

"That sounds cool." Henry told her, "I redid and upgraded our security protocols when Ashley was taken and I can patch the system back together but nothing as impressive as writing a program to monitor a rift in space and time." Will had found the file Helen kept of Jack and reading it had passed the time while they waited for news on the surgery.

"I'm sure you could have." Toshiko looked embarrassed now, "I can show you some of my programs if you like."

"I'd really like that Toshiko." Henry said with a grin.

"Please call me Tosh." She said, "But you might want to grab a coffee first, Ianto's coffee is to die for."

"Really?" Henry was surprised and please, "Magnus is so British she only drinks tea, the rest of us live of instant or Starbucks."

"Don't say that too loud." Tosh said, "Ianto might get offended." She added the last with a giggle that let Henry know she wasn't been serious. "Lets grab some coffee and food, then I'll show you my system. If you promise not to get crumbs on the keyboard."

"Scouts honour." Tosh laughed again, pleased to have someone other than Ianto to discuss her tech with. Generally the Welshman could keep up but sometimes even he ended up lost. Everyone else just tended to nod and agree with her. She'd tested it once, she'd talked absolute technobabble rubbish worthy of Star Trek at Gwen and the other woman had nodded and told her that was a good idea.

Speaking of the Welshwomen she was involved in an in depth discussion with Doctor Zimmerman about the differences between British and American policing methods, at least that's what it sounded like to Tosh, and his work at the Sanctuary.

"Oh this is good." Henry said as he took a sip of the coffee, "Sorry Tosh but we are going to have to kidnap Ianto."

"We'll fight for you for him." Tosh teased, "Come on and I'll show you the system."

"Shouldn't we tell someone we're leaving?" Henry asked, "In case they want us for something."

Tosh glanced over at Ianto and saw him nod to her. "They can comm me and Ianto knows we're leaving."

Ianto wasn't the only one who noticed. "Jack your tech girl is kidnapping my tech guy." Helen commented.

"He looked willing enough." Jack replied with a grin. "And half your team want to kidnap Ianto for his coffee so it seems almost fair."

"I'd have thought you'd complain more." Helen teased.

"Ianto can get himself out of trouble easy enough." Jack assured her, "He's very good with handcuffs and ropes."

"I think that was far more than we needed to know." John said.

"Oh no." Ashley complained, "I want to hear more, he teased me enough about my love life."

"You bet I did, I seem to remember there was this one guy, with the tattoos."

"Please." John protested, "I do not need to hear this."

"I forgot how stuffy Victorians are, that I do not miss." Jack laughed, "Still underneath all that stuffy British properness." He winked and caused the women to laugh again.

"Would you want to hear that about your daughter?" John asked

Before Jack answered Helen cut in, "Better not answer that one."

"Probably not." Jack agreed with a grin. "Any interesting new residents?"

"A few." Helen fell into shop talk with Jack over their respective organisations while Ashley made John fetch her cake, telling him that if he wanted to be her father he better get used to it. He brought her cheese cake as well as chocolate cake.

"And we found something from South America that Ashley called Nubbins." Helen said

That caught her daughter's attention. "The Nubbins are alright?"

"Of course, still in their chilled environment but they are doing just fine." Helen decided that it might be better to not mention that Nikola had testes his weapon for stopping Ashley on one of the Nubbins, it would only upset her and possibly end up in her attempting to cause grievous bodily harm to the vampire.

"Why did you call them Nubbins?" Jack asked curiously.

"It's from the Latin name." Ashley told him, "I nearly renamed them mini-Jacks. They're cute as hell and over-sexed."

"Will described them as a cross between those Furby toys everyone was mad over a few years ago and the Tribbles from Star Trek."

"Huh?" Jack just looked confused.

"You've seen the Tribbles Jack." Ianto said as he appeared at Jack's side with a fresh mug of coffee for the Captain, "They were on the other night, the fur balls that eat and breed."

"Ah right." Jack agreed remembering them. "And a Furby?"

Ianto shook his head, "I'll google it later for you."

"They nearly destroyed my Sanctuary before we captured them." Helen said, "Without the controls of their native ecosystem they breed out of control and decimate the area. We had a very difficult time containing them until we found that cold temperatures lower their metabolism enough to regulate their life cycle. Without that control a generation is less than a day."

"They could be a serious problem is left uncontrolled." Ianto agreed. "I'm glad we haven't come across anything like that but we did encounter a species that seemed to be an alien version of a mayfly. They used humans as an incubator."

"Nasty." Ashley said.

"The nasty part was where the humans using the mayfly came in." Jack told them.

Helen shook her head. "No matter what nature produces humans always seem to want to go step further." She saw both Ashley and John look away and realised that what she had said had likely reminded them of things they would rather forget. Seeking to change the topic she said to Jack. "A few years ago you mentioned that you'd found a pterodactyl and you did promise that I could see it next time I was in the UK."

"I did." Jack said. "Ianto?"

"I'll just get the chocolate from your office."

"She's very fond of Ianto." Jack told them as the Welshman left. "But we need to go into the main Hub for this."

"Mom can I come?" Ashley asked.

"Alright but try to take it easy." Helen instructed.

"I'll take care of her Helen," John promised, "Go and satisfy your scientist's curiosity."

"Will, you might want to see this too." Helen said as she followed Jack out of the room. "Jack says they have a pterodactyl." She turned her attention back to Jack leaving her protégée to follow or not as he chose. "You said it was female?"

"We think so." Jack told her. "We can't exactly call an expert in to check but based on comparison with fossils we think she's female. Besides she has a sweet tooth."

"We have a pterodactyl in London." Helen told him, "Perhaps we could share information."

"That would be helpful." Jack admitted, he knew next to nothing about biology in general, except for the parts about sex with many sentient species. That he knew an awful lot about.

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AN: Until next time. Please leave a reveiw. I'm flying to Peru in exactly three weeks but I'm still on target for finishing this by then. Also there will be one, or possibly more, sequals but those you won't be getting until after Peru


	6. Chapter 5

AN: So very sorry about how late this is but I had problems uploading on monday and then no internet since then. Very very sorry.

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As they walked into the main Hub they noticed that Henry and Tosh were at the latter's station, staring at the screens in fascination and speaking in low voices as though they were plotting world domination. Something Jack had long go conceded that Tosh could probably manage on her own. They headed to the area around the base of the water tower as it was one of the most open areas in the base. Ianto was already waiting for them.

John had been supporting Ashley as she walked. "Are you alright?"

"Fine." She assured him, "I was probably just hungry."

"That has been known to cause faintness." He replied and then they both turned their attention to Ianto.

Trying not to feel too self conscious at been the centre of attention Ianto whistled. An answering shriek came from Myfanwy's nest in the upper rafters of the Hub. "Myfanwy, here girl."

"Myfanwy?" Helen asked.

"That's why you don't let the native name the new pet." Jack told her, "Ianto found her so I said he could name her. The result was something on a Welshman can pronounce."

"Jack." Ianto protested, "Tosh can manage the name fine and so can Owen when he can be bothered, it's just you."

"Maybe I just like your Welsh lessons." Jack teased.

"God does he ever stop?" John asked the room in general.

"No." Answered the entire Torchwood team, his daughter and Helen.

Another shriek and the sound of large wings caused everyone to look up and see the pterodactyl that had decided to come out and see what the noise was.

"Hey girl." Ianto called out again. "Come down. I have chocolate." He pulled a bar out of the inside pocket of his jacket and started unwrapping it.

"How intelligent is she?" Helen asked as Myfanwy landed a few meters from Ianto and walked towards him, looking very awkward as she had to fold the membrane on both her wings back so she could use her wings as legs, allowing her to walk like an old man with two walking sticks.

"We had to train her to only eat food marked with a special sauce, it stopped her from eating things around the Hub, including Tosh's computers." Ianto explained. "Beyond that, I've taught her a few simple voice commands as you saw." Myfanwy was now standing in front of him and he reached out to stroke her head. "She wouldn't learn the tricks Jack tried to teach her but I'm not sure if that proves low or high intelligence." He broke off a piece of chocolate and Myfanwy took it from his fingers.

"She really likes chocolate?" Ashley asked.

"She prefers dark." Ianto told her, "But she'll eat most types except for white. Do you want to have a go?"

"Seriously?" Ashley asked.

"You'll be fine." Ianto told her, "She's just like a large dog."

"A very large dog." Ashley said as she left her father's side and walked over. "Don't show fear." She whispered to herself as she went to stand beside Ianto, "What do I do now?"

Ianto broke of a piece of chocolate and handed it too her, "Throw it up into the air above her head." He instructed. Ashley did as he said and then grinned when Myfanwy jumped up for it. Ianto broke off another piece and handed it to her. "This time hold it on the palm of your hand." Ashley did as she was told and Myfanwy tuned her head sideways to take it from Ashley's hand and then threw her head back to swallow it. "Hold out your hand and see if she'll let you pet her."

Conscious of her claws Ashley held out her hand and waited for a moment before Myfanwy pushed her head into her palm. "Amazing." Ashley breathed as she carefully petted Myfanwy.

"Yes she is." Ianto agreed.

"Can I have a closer look?" Helen asked.

"Make sure she sees you coming." Ianto advised as Helen walked over, "And the chocolate never hurts either." He added as she reached him and he handed her a piece of chocolate. Helen held her hand flat and offered Myfanwy the chocolate, the pterodactyl took it willingly enough and was happy to let Helen pet her some more.

"Amazing, absolutely amazing." Helen remarked as she bent to get a good look at Myfanwy's torso. "She appears to be in excellent health and fully grown?" She glance up at Ianto for confirmation.

"She was slightly smaller when we first caught her but she hasn't grown at all this past year." Ianto confirmed, "We believe she was a juvenile when she flew into a rift storm and was transported to the present day. I managed to trap her in a warehouse and then got Jack to help me bring her in."

"It was his interview." Jack said with a grin.

"Damn." Will swore, "You're as bad as Magnus with the interviews, mine was a boy with a semi-independent parasitic limb."

"You think his interviews are interesting you should try his dates." Ianto grinned.

Owen heard Druitt muttering something less than flattering about twenty-first century men and said, "Don't worry mate you get used to it."

"Looks like Jack has finally met his match." Ashley said,she was still petting Myfanwy, who seemed to appreciate the attention enough that she wasn't kicking up a fuss about the close examination Helen was giving her.

"You're certain she flew through the rift?" Helen asked.

"Yes." Ianto assured her, "I used a portable rift detector to locate her, she was still registering a slight amount of energy the day after we caught her."

"Ah, if there wasn't such a distance I'd almost suspect that the rift was the origin of the London .It appeared more then three decades ago." Helen said, "Your Myfanwy is a different colour and has different markings. That combined with her smaller size seems to suggest they're different species. Assuming you're right about this one's gender." She looked over at Jack, "When London is back up and running would it be possible to have one of the experts come and see her?"

"I wouldn't mind." Jack said, "But you better ask Ianto, she's very much his baby."

Ianto shot Jack an annoyed look before turning to Helen, "I'd welcome the visit, I've learnt to care for her on the fly, no pun intended, and some advice from a professional would be welcome."

"I'll let Declan know, he's been the acting-Head of House since James died but I'm planning on making it permanent."

"I remember him." Jack said, "From the last time I visited James. He's a good man, make sure he has my number Helen and knows that he can always count on us for backup,"

"I will do Jack." Helen said returning her attention to Myfanwy, who was still been a very good girl for the guests, though that could have had something to do with how attached she seemed to be getting to Ashley. The two women would occasionally ask Ianto questions about her habits and behaviours but everyone drifted back to their own conversations and eventually even Helen and Ashley let Myfanwy go since it was time for her night time flight.

"If you ever need a home for her." Helen said watching as she flew off.

Jack laughed, "I doubt it but you'll be the first I call."

It was a pleasant evening, disrupted by Gwen and Will who got into a heated debate over the merits of American football verses rugby. Apparently Will did not take too kindly to his national sport been called 'rugby for wusses."

"No it isn't." He insisted.

"Will, they wear body armour and helmets, then stop play every ten seconds for no real reason."

"Come on guys help me out here." Will said looking around beseechingly at his own team.

"You forget I'm British Will." Helen said with a grin.

"I prefer cricket, a far more genteel and civilised game." John told him with great dignity and a hidden grin.

"Baseball." Henry said.

"Which is basically rounders, and thus a girly game." Owen said, deciding to get in on the fun of teasing their visitors.

"And don't forget the other great American sport, basketball." Tosh put in, "Which is just netball for people who don't know how to hold still and throw without a very big target." Within seconds a huge debate had erupted between the Sanctuary and Torchwood teams about the similarities and differences between British and American sports.

Helen, John, Jack and Ianto just stood to one side and watched. "Are they usually like this?" Helen asked.

"No," Jack said, "Yours?"

"No."

"They'll calm down eventually." Ianto said, "Or well have a rift alert and then they'll have something better to do."

Ianto's words proved to be prophetic and less than ten minutes later a Weevil alert came in, Jack sent Gwen, Owen and Tosh to deal with it, telling them to take Will and Henry with them. They continued the debate even as they geared up and headed out. Taking advantage of the peace Helen hauled a protesting Ashley back to the autopsy bay to run some more tests while Ianto recruited the Big Guy to help him clear up after the two teams. Leaving Jack and John alone, with nothing else to do Jack invited the other man to his office and brought out the brandy.

"I don't usually drink at work unless it was a very bad day and never alone but today calls for a celebration and I do have company." He handed the glass to Druitt.

"Indeed, only because we are each without a useful purpose at the moment."

"You could have gone with them after the Weevil."

John snorted, "Thank you but no, if I had been forced to listen to much more of their inane arguing then I would have been forced to do something drastic, such as visit Tesla."

Jack laughed at that, "That man is such a conceited ass, I don't know why or how Helen put up with him."

"Nostalgia I believe." John admitted as he took a drink, "She longs for the old days, when we were The Five before my insanity. He reminds her of those time and with the passing of James she longs for that even more."

"I heard he'd died, how?"

"His suit finally failed, while we were in the Himalayas searching for the Source Blood. He knew it was happening but he didn't warn us until it was too late, even in his Sanctuary they wouldn't have been able to save him. I brought him back to Helen's sanctuary but with Ashley been taken by the Cabal and searching for her we have yet to take the time to bury him decently. Neither Helen nor I could bear to bury a friend so soon after our daughter."

"You really do love Ashley don't you?" Jack said, a trace of wonder in his voice.

"I love them both, my life is solely for them now and without them I would not want to live." He looked sadly down, "I do not hope for anything beyond friendship and I know that I am blessed even in that. For what I have done to them I deserve nothing more than a bullet in my head." He raised his hand to his right cheek and the scar Helen had left there then when she had tried to kill The Ripper.

"Did you really try to feed Ashley to a giant iguana?" Jack asked.

"I was not in my right mind."

"Evidently." Jack said before continuing seriously, "People tend to be forgiving, not usually in the heat of the moment when they tend to say things they regret, but later when the anger has cooled and they have perspective." He looked thoughtful as though deciding whether to continue before he spoke, "Ianto and I had a similar problem once, not exactly the same but we both did and said things we later regretted, things that in the heat of the moment seemed unforgivable. I nearly put a bullet in his brain, twice. And he swore he'd watch me die, painfully. But we came through it, stronger because of it. I'm not saying Helen will forgive you, but she might, she clearly still loves you and so does Ashley."

"I cannot allow myself that hope when I know it will never come true." John said sadly.

"We've all done things we're not proud of Druitt."

"I murdered eight innocent women Harkness and that was only the start."

"Well I've seen your latest work and had I know about Ashley I would have been out there with you so lets not put that too high on the guilt pile, the Cabal leaders needed killing." Jack sighed, "I've done things I'm not proud of, sometimes on the orders of my superiors and sometimes it was a sacrifice for the greater good. But other times, it was an accident or even for the hell of it." He shook his head, "I was young, stupid and thought I was a god."

"That sounds familiar."

"You thought you were a god?"

"No, we were all young, I was stupid and Tesla thought he was a god."

"He still does." Jack pointed out

John inclined his head, conceding that Jack certainly had a point, "I want you to promise me something Harkness, as Helen's friend and Ashley's godfather."

"What?"

"I fight everyday to keep the Ripper at bay and I fear that one day it may not be enough, if Helen cannot devise a treatment then I may not have the strength to hold out against the monster within forever."

Jack sat up straighter, "Is there something you're trying to tell me?"

John sighed, he was not prepared to tell the other man his control was starting to slip, not yet. He wanted a few months with Helen and Ashley first. He supposed that for everything he had done his soul was already damned therefore it would be unlikely he would ever see them again. That meant he wanted whatever precious time he could have with them. "Not yet, but fear that it may one day happen, with that in mind I ask you to do one thing. If it happens, kill me."

"What?" Jack asked shocked.

"I do not want to be the monster again and I do not want Helen or Ashley to bear the burden of this act. Helen has already proved that she cannot kill me. So I would like your oath Captain Jack Harkness that if I do become The Ripper again, you will kill me."

"You have my oath John Druitt, I will do whatever it takes to stop you, and may Helen and Ashley forgive me for it." Jack took a deep breath, "Now could we perhaps find a happier topic?"

"As you wish." John agreed, "And as you said earlier, love may prove to be enough, there for a toast. To idiots and the hope that those they love might one day forgive them."

"To us." Jack said as he clicked his glass against Druitt's.

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AN: There will (internet permitting) be another chapter within a few days.


	7. Chapter 6

AN: This is to make up for the late update the other day, a second update in two days! And the arrival of Nikola Tesla! Enjoy

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Helen was ready to bang her head against the desk she was sitting at, all night she had be working on the problem of her daughter's altered DNA and she had yet to find a solution. Ashley was currently sleeping on the bed in the autopsy bay, hooked up to several monitors to give Helen a base line reading to compare to her previous one.

John had teleported the rest of her team back to the Sanctuary so they could get some rest of their own and attend to their duties as needed. He'd returned with the report that Kate had been doing a very good job of running the Sanctuary for the day and that no residents were missing. In fact they were still cleaning up from the impromptu party that had been thrown to celebrate Ashley's survival.

Helen allowed herself a moment to glance over at the couch where John was currently sleeping. She smiled softly, he looked more like the man she fell in love with while he slept. His body relaxed and the lines smoothed from his face. His blue eyes, which were of late so haunted, were hidden and she had to stop herself from walking over and stroking his cheek as she once would have done.

Turning resolutely back to her work, and refusing to allow herself anymore distractions, Helen read over the notes again, hoping that some clue she had previously missed would jump out at her.

"Still no luck?" She looked up to see Owen Harper standing behind her.

"Don't you ever sleep?" She asked him.

"Not lately." He told her as he pulled up another chair, "What's the problem?"

"I'm trying to find a way to remove the additional abnormal DNA without affecting her original DNA."

"I thought Will said you'd already done the same thing on him?" Owen asked.

"I did but it was different in his case, because he was human to begin with all I had to do was remove all trace of the abnormal DNA. Ashley is born of two Abnormal parents, though she never showed much evidence of it, I cannot remove all Abnormal DNA without changing who she is. I would loose my daughter again."

"Let me take a look." Owen said reaching for the papers in front of Helen, "I'm not going to pretend to be an sort of expert on this but I have dealt with some pretty weird shit."

"What happened to your hand?" She asked, noticing again the bandage on his left hand.

"I broke my little finger." He said absently as he started flipping through the papers.

"And your palm?"

"At medical school they tell you not to show off with scalpels, I never did listen."

"Is it healing alright?" Helen asked, "Do you want me to take a look?"

"No." He said looking up at her with what almost looked to Helen like fear in his eyes, "I mean thank you but no, it's healing as well as can be expected." Helen sensed that there was something he was keeping back, something he did not want to say but she didn't push him, knowing that people tended to close down and pull away when you pushed them too hard for information. She'd learnt that the heard way more than a century ago even if she still had a hard time applying that knowledge when her emotions were running high. Ms Freelander had been the most recent to discover that.

The morning brought first Jack and Ianto, then Tosh and finally Gwen back to the Hub. Both Ashley and John were also awake and enjoying the breakfast that Jack and Ianto had brought, which was not the usual fair if the delight of the Torchwood women was anything to go by.

What morning did not bring was a solution to the problem Owen and Helen had been working on all night. "I don't think we have a choice John." Helen said as she sipped the tea Ianto had prepared for her. "He has the most experience with vampire DNA."

"From trying to resurrect the species." Druitt argued, "Helen the man is an idiot."

"He has a very high IQ." Helen defended.

"With an ego to match and only an idiot would try to resurrect Sanguien Vampiris."

Not wanting to concede that he had a point there, Helen moved on to a different topic. "I know there is some bad blood between the two of you."

"He tried to kill you Helen." John exploded, "That is something that can never be forgiven."

Helen wasn't sure how to respond to that or even what she felt about it so she chose to ignore it instead. "That wasn't what I meant but quite aside from there he is a genius and he has come through for us before, with the cure for the Lazarus virus and," Her eyes darted to the side where their daughter was still eating breakfast and watching them argue, surrounded by the Torchwood team, "And the weapon against the super-abnormals. My point is he's helped before, he may very likely be able to do so again."

The gathered Torchwood team could almost hear Druitt grinding his teeth then he looked at Ashley and his face softened slightly. "For the sake of our daughter I will bring the self-appointed God's gift to the world to you."

"Alive if you please John."

"Does he need to have all his fingers?"

"I'm afraid so."

"And his legs?"

Helen considered that for a moment, "They should probably still be attached but if he refuses to join us then please use whatever persuasion is needed."

"As you wish." He said with a small grin and a bow, teleporting as he reached the bottom.

"Show off." Ashley muttered, "What's the problem anyway mom?"

"I'm having trouble finding a way to safely remove the vampire DNA." Helen admitted, "Owen and I can't think of a way to do it without stripping all the abnormal DNA, that could kill you. I hope Nikola can find another way."

"Mom they guy tried to kill you."

"So did your father." Helen pointed out then turned her attention to the Torchwood team. "I should warn you about Tesla."

"He's rude, arrogant and an egomaniac but he's also quite pretty." Jack said.

"Shall I keep this coffee?" Ianto asked, his voice was mild but there was a hint of warning to it.

"Jealous doesn't suit you Ianto." Tosh said with a grin.

"Besides." Jack said with a grin as he took the coffee with one hand and slipped the other around his young lover's waist, "With the size of Tesla ego there isn't room in his bed for anyone else."

John teleported to the Indian villa where he had last found Tesla, the vampire did seem ridiculously attached to the country though John found it a trifle hot for his tastes. He assumed that it had something to do with the ancestral home of the vampire race been in the nearby Himalayas, even if said home was now just rubble.

Not bothering with any manners, since Tesla would undoubtedly fail to show him any, he had teleported directly into the main room of the villa. Only to find it deserted, though the main table was stacked high with brochures and leaflets about some Mexican health clinic. Unless it deflated egos it would be a waste of time for Nikola to go.

"Well, well, well. Two visits in as many days." Tesla said as he strode into the room, "Whatever have I done to deserve this?"

"The world does not revolve around you Nikola, despite your beliefs to the contrary."

"And yet here you are," Tesla brushed past him and began to gather the papers on the table, "Still I don't have time to trade insults with you today Druitt, as much fun as it always is to watch you defeated by my dazzling wit, so please favour me with you absence as I have a trip that I need to make."

"Yes you do." John agreed, grabbing his arm. "With me."

"Unhand me at once you murdering half-wit." He struggled but was unable to break John's grip.

"Helen instructed me to bring you to her, she even insisted that you be alive and have all your fingers." John could feel The Ripper starting to bleed through, calling for blood, calling to see just how much damage a vampire could take before he died. With great effort, and by focusing on his daughter, he was able to re-cage the monster but with each near escape those bars became weaker. "She was not however so specific about your legs, in fact she told me to use whatever means necessary to assure your presence in Cardiff. So my old friend, would you rather so this my way or The Ripper's way?"

Tesla swallowed, rather nervous about this now. John Druitt he could handle, Jack The Ripper he wasn't so sure about. There had always been something about John when he was The Ripper that had scared even Tesla, it was like his darker vampiric traits but magnified a thousand times. It was something not quite human. Still his pride wouldn't allow him to verbally surrender so instead he simply stopped struggling.

John took that for the sign it was and teleported them back to Cardiff. They were greeted by Ashley's voice. "Aw he's still standing."

"I must say I'm quite pleased that neither of you are covered in blood." Helen said. Both she and Ashley were sitting on the battered sofas enjoying breakfast, or second breakfast in Ashley's case but since she could stand to gain some weight back after her captivity no one was going to object. Helen had taken advantage of the time John had been gone to remove the bandage from Ashley's neck. Since she still had the extreme healing of the vampires, though hopefully not for much longer, the incision from the previous day had healed without even a scar. Ashley had also taken the time to change into the clothes that Jack and Ianto had brought in for her that morning and was more than happy to be out of the white hospital-like clothes she had woken up in.

Tesla stared at Ashley, when John had told him of her survival he had doubted the other man's sanity, even more than he did while they were hunting down the last of the Cabal. Now he saw the proof with his own eyes. "Hey, smart guy. Any idea how to get rid of these?" She held up her own vampiric claws, "Cause unlike yours mine, don't seem to want to go away, and they make breakfast kinda tricky."

"She's certainly your daughter Druitt, no manners at all."

"This from the man who called me a 'murdering half-wit'"

"That was merely truth."

"Gentlemen!" Helen interrupted before another Tesla/Druitt argument could break out. Sometimes, despite the intervening twelve decades, it was just like been back in Oxford again. Only without Nigel egging them both on or James to help her keep the peace. "Nikola stop deliberately infuriating him, if that is possible, and John stop allowing him to." Seeing that both men had at least been silenced if nothing else Helen pressed on. "Nikola as John has no doubt told you and you can clearly see, Ashley survived the teleport through the EM shield, and now I need you help."

"Whatever for? It looks like you're already to play happy families." He shot a look over at Druitt, "And I am certain I'm not invited to that."

"I really should not allow you two in the same room." Helen complained, "Nikola focus please. I have been able to remove the Cabal's control over Ashley but I cannot find a way to remove the vampiric traits without completely removing her Abnormal DNA."

"Which you obviously don't want." Nikola might be annoying, and he did enjoy getting digs in at John Druitt, but he could see a problem where one existed. "I will help you on one condition," He turned to Druitt, "I want you to admit you need my help and ask for it."

John gritted his teeth again, Tesla never failed to find the best way to get under his skin. The monster within demanded that he tear Tesla apart until the infuriating vampire did as they wanted. But he pushed that part back, the more he gave in the stronger it got and the less time he would have with Ashley and Helen. His pride be damned this was his daughter. "Nikola Tesla, I never said you did not have a high intellect and a gift for technology, I ask you to use that and find a way to do what Helen and I cannot, restore Ashley to her former self, physically as well as mentally."

"Not as grovelling as I would have liked but it will do." Tesla turned back to Helen. "Let me look over you data and of course I will need wine, the good stuff." It seemed as though Tesla finally noticed that they were not in Helen's Sanctuary. "And what is this damp hole?"

"Torchwood." Jack finally spoke up from where he and the rest of this team were standing near Tosh's computers, enjoying the show from the looks of it.

Tesla groaned, "Oh for the love of God! What the hell did I do to deserve you Harkness?"

"Ashley teleported here." Helen quickly intervened before Tesla and Jack started arguing, or in Jack's case flirting. "We think she instinctively went to the only safe place she could think of."

"My basement." Jack filled in happily, "And it was very nice to see her again." He flashed Ashley a quick grin. "You're on my base so my rules. You don't behave I will shoot you, it might not stop you for long but it will hurt like hell, especially where I'm planning to shoot you." He shot a pointed look at Tesla's groin.

"I hope you gave him that warning too." Tesla complained gesturing at Druitt.

"Of course." Jack told him. "My team, Owen Harper, Toshiko Sato, Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones."

"Oh God, not natives!"

"Hey we're just as capable of shoot your balls off as he is." Gwen retorted.

"And I'm the one in charge of refreshments." Ianto told him, "Including your wine, so if you don't want Tesco Value then lay off the Welsh."

Choosing to ignore the Welshman Tesla turned his attention to the other two members of the team, "Why don't you have a heartbeat?"

Owen groaned as Helen, John and Ashley all turned to stare at him, he'd really been hoping to avoid this. "Cos I'm dead alright."

"You don't look it." Ashley told him.

"Well a gun shot wound to the chest does tend to be fatal." Owen told them as he lifted up his shirt to show them the injury. "And yes it does go most of the way through before anyone asks."

"That is why you didn't want me to check your injury." Helen told him, "It's not healing because it can't and you didn't want me to notice."

"How is that even possible?" Tesla asked resisting the morbid temptation to go over and poke his finger into Owen's chest.

"Jack doesn't like to let people go, I was killed and he used alien tech to bring me back, but it couldn't make me fully alive again. No food, drink, sleep or sex. I've had to find new hobbies."

"Remarkable, can I examine this technology?" Tesla asked excitedly, thinking of how it could be used in his own quest to restore the vampire race.

"No." Jack said firmly, "I destroyed it. Nothing good can come of it."

"If we could get back to the matter at hand?" Helen suggested, "Nikola, here is a full set of my data and findings so far." The two of them quickly became absorbed in their work and were quickly joined by Owen. The details of what they were doing were lost on anyone without a medical degree but Ashley under stood enough to know that they were doing some work on how exactly the vampiric DNA had been incorporated into her genome. And she didn't really want to know much past that, she wasn't a scientist, that was her mother's job, she was the tracker and the street contact for the Abnormal community.

She was also the business end of the operation, if an Abnormal wouldn't listen to her mother's words then they had to listen to her fists, or guns, which ever worked. But that was the part she didn't like to think about, it reminded her too much of who her father was.

Since she'd woken up he'd been very different to the man she had first met and she thought she might be getting a small hint of what the man her mother had fell in love with was like. Only a hint because the darkness was still there but looking at him now she could perhaps see why her mother had fallen in love with him.

"Something wrong Ashley?" Jack asked standing beside her.

"Not much." She told him, "Just bored, I know I can't go anywhere, not with these nails, but I'd like something to do."

"We have a shooting range here." Jack suggested, "And all the guns you could want, if you'd care to join me?" He asked offering his arm.

"Don't mind if I do." Ashley said, carefully linking her arm though his, ever mindful of her claws. "Mom, going to shoot thinks with uncle Jack!" She shouted over her shoulder to where the two doctors were working with Tesla.

"Don't do any permanent damage." Helen called back absently, already focused on her work.

Ashley grinned, "Lead the way." Jack did as he was told and escorted her down to the weapons range. Ashley spent a lot of time looking around her, she had never actually been to the Hub before. At first it was because Jack had insisted on keeping his contact with the Sanctuary Network secret from Torchwood, since the latter did not trust the former. Later, after he had established his own team and made the Cardiff branch practically autonomous he still didn't allow Ashley to visit him in Cardiff, he wanted to keep his almost-family separate from his work.

Instead when Ashley would spend her annual month with James Watson during school her summer holidays Jack would travel to London to visit her. He couldn't afford to be absent from Cardiff for the entire month, often not even for a week. So instead of trying for several consecutive days he would instead visit several times over Ashley's month in England.

The result was the Ashley was now seeing Cardiff for the first time and Jack was wondering how on Earth she had managed to teleport herself to him without a guiding image or co-ordinates.

"Nice." Ashley commented as she saw the range and all the guns racked in their cage against one wall.

Jack grinned and released Ashley's arm before striding to the weapons cage and throwing the doors open, "Lady's choice." He said with a flourish and a grin. Ashley grinned too and selected her weapon, needing to find one that could accommodate her nails. She really hoped her mother found a way to reverse what the Cabal had done to her and quickly because the nails were becoming a serious pain.

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AN: Leave me a review, this update puts us back on track so expect the next one on Monday or Tuseday. Someone asked so just to let you know this will be eight chapters plus the prolouge and epilouge


	8. Chapter 7

Tesla sipped at the wine as he studied the data that Helen and the other doctor handed him, the Cabal had some intelligent people on their side he had to give them than. But they weren't as intelligent as him. The vampiric DNA in young Ashley had clearly been derived directly from the Source Blood, something he had never had the chance to try in his own attempts to revive his race. However it had been spliced into Ashley's own abnormal DNA in such a crude fashion that Nikola was amazed she had retained her ability to teleport.

"Well this is what happens when you allow children to meddle in things they don't understand." He said, "I'd be ashamed to have produced something of this poor quality."

"That's my daughter Tesla." John snapped at him.

"And while that no doubt counts against her, she has the many qualities she inherited from her mother to cancel it out." Tesla snapped back, "That was not, however, what I was referring to. No, it was the quality of the genetic engineering used. Look here." He pointed to a specific section of coding, "They just smashed open the DNA and stuck the extra in with no regards for the damage they were doing, it's a wonder they didn't kill her in the process."

"Thank you Nikola." Helen said, she had been trying very hard not to think about exactly what the Cabal had done to Ashley while she was their prisoner. She knew that she would eventually have to face it, no doubt Ashley would need to talk to someone at some point and she might be more comfortable with her mother than anyone else. "Can you help her?"

"Can I come up with a way to remove only the crudely spliced vampire DNA but still leave her natural abnormal DNA intact?" Nikola said, "Of course I can Helen, I already have."

"What?" Helen asked shocked.

"Well when trying to resurrect a species it always helps to have a back up plan in place just in case."

"In case your creations turn on you?" Owen said.

"It hasn't been a problem yet." Tesla said, "But as Helen will testify, as yet my creations of mindless. Perfectly obidient but totally useless as far as my over all plan goes."

"I hope you aren't planning anything too stupid Nikola." John put in.

"None of my plans are ever stupid." Tesla said, insulted at what John was implying. "The problem is in the actions of others not in my planning." Druitt muttered something that sounded a lot less than complimentary about Tesla and the degree of relatedness of his parents.

"We'll discuss your latest plans later Tesla." Helen told him firmly, it was her job, as the head of the Sanctuary Network, to protect humans, abnormals and the balance between them. That sometimes meant making very tough decisions and at others smacking one of her oldest friends until he saw sense. Though she doubted anything would ever cause Nikola to abandon his quest to restore his ancestral race. "Where is the device?"

"The safest place I could think of." Nikola said with a grin.

Helen groaned, "Please tell me you did not hide it in my House." Tesla just grinned wider and Helen shook her head, "John, please take this grinning cretin back to the Sanctuary so he can retrieve his device from whatever dark corner he's hidden it in."

"Helen, who ever said it was hidden in a corner?" He drained the rest of his glass of wine. "Not bad for such short notice, I might have to revise a very few of my opinions about the Welsh."

"Please grasp your ears firmly and remove your head from your conceited arse Tesla." Ianto shouted back from where he was working on a report.

"That was a compliment you ignorant child!" Tesla snapped

"Then you need to check your definition of a compliment." Ianto shouted back, "And for the record ignorance can be cured but stupidity is forever."

Tesla looked thoroughly miffed while Helen tried to hide a smile. John didn't even bother trying and started laughing, "Well done Mr Jones." Tesla glared at John.

Helen managed to fight back her smile and managed to look faintly exasperated. "Gentlemen, if you can put aside your rivalry for a few more minutes and please focus on Ashley. John, take Nikola to the Sanctuary so he can retrieve his device."

"As you wish." He said, then raised his voice. "Miss Sato, can you please lower the EM shield?"

There were a few clicks as Tosh typed the order into her computer, "Done." She called back. With a nod to Helen, John grabbed Tesla's arm and teleported them to the Sanctuary.

"Are they always that bad?" Owen asked.

"I think it's getting worse with age." Helen told him.

"And nice one teaboy!" Owen called out as Ianto walked past them, carrying a folder that needed filing in the Archives.

"I knew all that practice on you would come in handy for something dead-boy."

"I thought you never spoke ill of the dead?" Owen complained.

"I decided you talk too much to be counted as dead." Ianto shouted back over his shoulder as he disappeared in to the passage way that lead to the Archives.

Helen shook her head and wondered if the incessant arguing was simply programmed into males, regardless of species, but no, it couldn't be, Henry and Will were never this bad. At least not when she was around.

"Where's Ashley?" She asked the room in general, having suddenly realised that her daughter was no where in sight.

"Still with Jack on the Shooting Range." Tosh called out, she taped a few keys. "She looks like she's working out some frustration." Helen walk over to that she was standing looking over the Asian woman's shoulder. There, in the small window showing the CCTV footage from the range, was her daughter. Absently Helen noticed that her daughter's stance was, as always, perfect but she paid more attention to the look on Ashley's face, as best she could see it with the angle of the camera. She'd seen that look once before, when they were shooting together on the range after they got back from Rome.

"She's not dealing well with this." Helen muttered.

"That's not really surprising though is it?" Gwen asked as she joined the other two women, Owen had disappeared, likely to tidy the autopsy room since he was never one for talking about the emotions and feelings.

Helen shook her head, "Ashley has proved in the past that she doesn't always handling bad things very well. After she found out about John she tried to pretend that it didn't matter to her, then she just tried to ignore it completely."

"That's not healthy." Gwen agreed.

"It will be worse for this, because she won't be able to ignore it." Helen said, "In my House she'll be fine, no one will say anything to her but if she visits one of the other Sanctuaries she will be faced with what she was forced to do while under Cabal control and I fear that if she tries to bury her feelings on this subject instead of dealing with them she will eventually have a breakdown."

"Quite possibly." Gwen agreed "But Will's a psychiatrist, can't he talk to her?"

"He can try." Helen said, "But when it comes to things about which she doesn't want to talk nothing can make her. A trait she comes by naturally I'm afraid, on both sides. I hope she will eventually speak to me, or at least one of the others, she grew up with Henry so she might turn to him instead. I don't care provided she talks to someone."

"I think she might do just that." Tosh said pointing to the screen where Jack had wrapped his arms around Ashley was carefully taking the gun from her shaking hands.

Jack was a little concerned with the focus and determinations that Ashley was using in her shooting, it could almost be described as malice. Looking over at his god-daughter he wondered what she was seeing in her mind, because it was almost certainly not the paper targets they were shooting. He didn't say anything to her though, knowing that she would talk when she was ready and not a moment sooner.

He became very concerned when he noticed that Ashley's hands were shaking but she didn't stop shooting. Placing his own gun down on the table he stepped up behind her and wrapped one arm around her waist while this over one reached up to take the gun from her.

She released it immediately and almost collapsed into his arms. Jack carefully lowered them to the floor and pulled her onto his lap so that she wouldn't get cold on the concrete floor. He set her now empty gun on the floor and pushed it away from them, then he removed her protective gear and his own before he wrapped both arms around her.

There were tears running down her cheeks and she tried to muffle the sounds of her sobs in his shirt. With his arms still around her he managed to reach his wrist strap and tap the necessary controls to block the CCTV for the room, knowing that Ashley wouldn't want anyone to see her breaking down like this.

"He's blocked it." Tosh said the CCTV from the shooting range went blank. "There's no way round it." She added looking over her shoulder apologetically at Helen.

"That's alight Toshiko." Helen assured her, "She's safe with him and if she talks to him then at least she's talking to someone rather then repressing everything."

"I didn't want to Uncle Jack." Ashley said quietly as her sobs calmed slightly. "I didn't want to hurt any of them. I didn't want to kill them. Doctor Hitomata tried to reason with us, but I couldn't stop myself, I killed him!" She sobbed again, "He was always so kind to me, he called me 'Ryuuko', it means 'dragon-child' because when I was twelve I trashed his office when I was left alone there for five minutes." She sobbed again, "He called me that when he was trying to reason with me, he reminded me that the dragon can be a protector as well as a destroyer. I broke his neck."

"No you didn't Ashley." Jack said firmly, as he rocker her in his arms slightly, just like he used to when she was a child. It had never failed but if she had a bad dream when he was visiting her in London she would seek him out rather than James, and she'd had a remarkable number of bad dreams as a child. "The Cabal killed him. Is the gun the killer or is it the person who pulled the trigger? They had control of you, you were not more guilty than the gun it. The Cabal are the murders and I am sure that in whatever afterlife there is Hitomata knows that it wasn't his Ryuuko that killed him but he would be sad to see his little dragon broken by the true monsters in the world."

"I see them, every time I close my eyes." She admitted sadly, "The horror in their faces as they knew they were going to die, the sadness that it was me killing them. They looked betrayed, Jack, and they should have been, because I was destroying everything I believed in, everything my mother had worked her entire life for."

"The Cabal was destroying everything you believed in. The Cabal was destroying your mother's life's work." Jack said firmly. "

"I should have been able to do something."

"Did you know what the Cabal would do when you went to that compound? Did you deliberately allow yourself to be caught? Did you surrender and give in the their mind control or did you fight every step of the way?"

"I fought."Ashley admitted in a soft voice, "I fought so hard but it didn't do any good."

"Yes it did Ashley, you stopped the other one killing your mother." Jack reminded her, "And you decided that you'd rather die than allow yourself to hurt her. That is what matters, you did good when you broke through the control."

"I tried to escape." Ashley said softly, she'd stopped crying now but she didn't try to move from Jack's lap. It reminded her of been a little girl, when she had believed that her mother and uncles would stop all the bad things in the world from getting her. It was nice to feel that again and to know that as long as Jack had his arms around her she could allow herself to be that little girl again and her Uncle Jack would protect her.

"When?"

"Just after they started using the Source Blood on me. They had to ease off the control drugs so they wouldn't interfere. I was dream of mom, and when she called my name in the dream I woke up and my mind was my own. I used my nail to cut the straps holding me to the table and then I tried to kill the doctor who had been controlling me, drugging me. But I couldn't, I think that insect was stopping me."

Ashley shuddered with revulsion, "Just the memory of her makes me sick." She spat, "She acted like a proud parent, she kept saying that it would be okay, just like mom did when I broke my leg or when I was sick. Between that and the sight of these nail I wanted to be sick." Ashley took a deep breath, trying to hold back another sob, "I just wanted my mom to burst through the door with Will and Henry, or my father to appear, slit her throat, then wrap his arms around me and take me home. I wanted to wake up in my own bed and then laugh about my bad dream with Henry over breakfast."

"I know you did darling." Jack said soothingly, "And I am so sorry that we couldn't come for you. If I had known what was happening I would have called in every favour I had to find you, your mother and Druitt did everything they could as well but the Cabal had you too deeply hidden. Even when told it was hopeless they didn't give up on trying to find you."

They sat in silence for several minutes before Ashley finally asked, "Uncle James is dead isn't he?"

"I'm afraid so."

"I knew he must be, otherwise he'd be here too, no matter what state his House was in, he'd leave Declan in charge and come to see me. Besides if he had been alive Whitcomb would have named him as the target not Declan." Ashley said, "What happened to him?"

"He never made it back from Balaasam." Jack told her, he'd cornered Helen for the full story the previous night, wanting to know the details himself since James Watson had been a good friend to him for many long decades. "The machines that kept him alive had been failing for sometimes but he didn't tell anyone, your mother things it was because he knew no one could help and he didn't want to worry them. He was able to help retrieve the Blood and he was happy to have one last challenge." Jack smiled, "He was also able to make up with your father. John told me that their tasks were linked and at the end James knew that he had changed."

"That's good." Ashley said, she was crying again but this time they were tears of grief for her god-father. "Do you think mom would let me go to his grave?"

Jack shook his head, "He hasn't been buried yet. Your parents both devoted all their time to trying to find you, they knew that James would have wanted that, rather than taking a day to bury him. Your father brought him back from Balassam, but I'll talk to Helen and make the arrangements. I believe he wanted to be buried at his Sanctuary."

Ashley nodded, "He did. He mentioned it last time I was at London, he even pointed out the spot. Do you think he knew?"

"A mind as great as James's knew that death could not be cheated forever." Jack said and then nodded, "He did know but he didn't want to worry anyone with what he knew could not be changed." He saw Ashley wipe her eyes, "Are you feeling a bit better now?"

Ashley paused to think for a second and then seemed almost surprised at the answer, "Yes, I think I do, just a bit but I do feel better."

"It'll take time Ash but you will get through this." Jack promised, "And I'll help you." He lifted her off his lap and then climbed to his feet before offering her his hand to help her stand also. Then he pulled an handkerchief from his pocket and drying her cheeks. "There now no one will know." Ashley gave a shaky laugh, they both knew that it was a lie. Her eyes would be red from crying but it was nice of Jack to try and make her feel better. "And I better put the CCTV back on before someone wonders what we're doing in here." He smirked at her as he activated the controls on his wrist strap to restore the CCTV function to the room.

To say that Kate Freelander was nervous when she heard that John Druitt was back in the Sanctuary and looking for her would be something of an understatement. She would never admit to anyone that the man scared her but he was Jack the freaking Ripper, who wasn't even slightly worried when they heard he was looking for them? Apart from Helen and Ashley Magnus obviously.

She wasn't going to hide from him though, that would be the same as admitting she was scared of him, so she thanked Steve the Lizard-man when he warned her, and carried on feeding Ralfie, the baby Steno that had imprinted on her. Despite the best attempts his favourite food was still burgers.

"Miss Freelander." Druitt said as he walked through the door to Ralfie's room. "I would like to speak to you for a moment."

"Go for it then." She didn't stand from where she was kneeling to pet Ralfie but she did look up at him.

"I would like to thank you." He probably couldn't have surprised Kate more if he had asked her to marry him. "I understand from Ashley that you stopped her from killing Helen."

"Did she tell you that I did it with a Rocket launcher?" Kate asked hesitantly, she wanted to make sure that Druitt knew the full story. That way he wouldn't come after her blood later when he found out. At least in that exact moment she had Ralfie to help protect her.

"She did not." Druitt said. "However that does not lessen or remove my gratitude, you save Helen's life and spared Ashley the memory of killing her mother, how you did that is irrelevant since little short of a rocket launcher would have stopped her at that point." He bowed, "So as I said: Thank you Miss Freelander, I am in your debt."

"You're welcome." Kate said and he nodded and left. Then she turned to Ralfie, "Well that was weird. Was it me or did Jack the Ripper just thank me?" Ralfie didn't seemed to have an answer but instead licked her face and tried to climbed on her, wanting to play. "Alright, alright." Kate said with a grin and threw the ball for him again.

John arrived back in the Entrance Hall less than a minute before Tesla, he was both unimpressed and unsurprised when the vampire walked in with a glass and metal cylinder in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other. Some of Helen's best wine unless John was very much mistaken.

"There was something wrong with the wine Mr Jones provided?" John asked, "You were drinking it fast enough before we left."

"I have decided that the wine in Wales leaves something to be desired." John assumed that the issue was the man who handed the wine to him, Tesla was undoubtedly pissed off that Ianto Jones had been able to outsmart him. Trying, and possibly failing, to hide his smirk John grabbed Tesla's arm and teleported them back to Cardiff.

* * *

AN: Please leave a review? There's just one more chapter and the epilouge left now


	9. Chapter 8

"This is it?" Helen asked as Owen and Tosh examined the device. It didn't look all that impressive, a glass cylinder about a foot long, if that, with metal components inside and a metal plate on either end.

"This is it." Tesla told her, "I created it as a fail safe in case one of my experiments ever got out of control." He sounded proud of this, as if everyone should be thanking him for his foresight. Helen would just prefer he stop trying to resurrect the vampires in the first place. "I call it the Devamper."

There was silence for a long moment then Tosh giggled, the rest of the Torchwood team quickly joined her and even Helen and John couldn't help themselves.

"And you're supposed to be a genius?" Owen managed through the laughter, "The best you can come up with is 'Devamper', that is actually pathetic."

"No comments from the graveyard." Tesla snapped back. "This will removed the vampiric DNA that has been added to your daughter's without harm to her other abnormal DNA. It will then break down the vampiric DNA into the component nucleotides which can be reused by her cells during mitosis."

John had the uncomfortable feeling that he was the only one in the room, possibly bar Gwen, who had not understood what Tesla had said. But he'd understood what he considered the important parts, Tesla's device would remove the vampiric DNA from Ashley and make it harmless to her.

"Where's the power source?" Tosh asked, turning the device over trying to find the power source or where it could connect to the power source.

Tesla took the device from her and held it in his hand, "You're looking at it." As he spoke the device began to glow and the glass tube filled with golden energy. Without removing the device from Tesla's hand Tosh began to examine it again. Everyone could tell she was just itching to take it, and possibly Tesla, apart. The vampire in question was starting to look at the young Japanese woman with unease, she did genuinely seem ready to dissect him to find out how he and his device work.

"Are we missing all the fun?" Everyone turned to see Jack and Ashley who had just returned from the shooting range. Everyone pretended not to notice that she had been crying.

"Apparently Tesla has a very poor imagination for a genius." Ianto said, he'd returned from the Archives in time to hear the argument, "But he does have something that can remove the vampiric DNA without harm to Ashley."

"That's it?" Ashley asked, looking at the still glowing device in Tesla's hand, "That's going to make me normal again."

"Not likely, not with your parents." Tesla commented, "But as normal as you ever were."

"Is it going to hurt?" As Ashley recalled been turned into what ever she was had hurt like hell.

"Well that part I just don't know." Tesla told her, "I've never tested it, after all I'm hardly going to experiment

on myself now am I?"

"I don't know." John said, "If it removes your ego it would do the world a great service."

"Don't you have anything else to do Druitt? After all we aren't that far from White Chapel."

Helen rolled her eyes, they were at it again. Both John and Nikola were perfectly acceptable company on their own but when they were together it was like they couldn't stop trying to get little insults and digs in at each other. It was ridiculous and juvenile in the extreme. "Not now gentlemen, could you please act your ages?"

"Senile?" Ashley asked. That set the Torchwood team off again while all the century-plus occupants in the room glared at her with varying degrees of annoyance. Actually it was really only Tesla who looked all that annoyed, the other three were still far to happy she was alive to be even slightly annoyed with her.

"What effects is the device likely to have on Ashley?" Owen asked once the laughed had died down, he wanted to get the conversation back to the topic without it turning into another Druitt/Tesla pissing contest. He'd only know them a day and he was already wondering how the hell Helen had put up with them for years.

"I don't know." Tesla said, "It shouldn't kill her."

"Well that's comforting." Ashley complained.

"Alright." Owen said, "I want to do this in the autopsy bay so we have medical equipment on hand if we need it." He hauled them down to the autopsy bay. Ashley once again found herself sitting on the chair with her parents on one side and Jack on the other. Owen hovered behind his boss on case additional medical skills were needed. The rest of the Torchwood team were leaning against the rail at the top of the stairs.

"I feel like I'm on show." Ashley complained.

"Come to think of it this does remind me of the public anatomy lectures that the Royal Collage used to give." John commented.

"Well that makes me feel a lot better." Ashley muttered.

"You only need one dead body for an anatomy lecture." Ianto put in, "And we already have one, the up side is he can give the lecture at the same time."

"So much for never speaking ill of the dead." Owen muttered. "Shall we get on with this so I can go back to dissecting dead aliens in peace."

Without any preamble Tesla took a step towards Ashley and placed the device against her chest where the shirt she was wearing revealed her bare skin. Helen slipped her hand into John's as Tesla activated the device and Ashley screamed.

"Ahh!" She screamed and then gasped trying to breath as best she could when it felt like every cell in her body was on fire. The pain was too intense for her to actually form words, too intense for her to even form thoughts of how much damage she was going to do to Tesla when this was over. She was grateful when she finally passed out.

"This thing works like a charm." Tesla commented but no one else seemed to be listening. Helen and Owen had both turned their attention to check Ashley's vitals. So much so that it was actually John who noticed the most obvious change.

"Helen look." He said taking their daughter's hand and showing the now human nails that each of her fingers bore.

Before anyone could say anything Ashley woke up with a gasp, "Easy." Helen told her putting both hands on her shoulders. "You're fine, you're safe."

"Did it work?"

"See for yourself." John advised holding up the hand had still held hers. Ashley stared at her hand as if she'd never seen it before and then pulled it free of her father's so she could examine it more closely. Her nails were back to their usual short practical length and no longer silver coloured.

"I want to run a few tests." Helen told her, "And a DNA comparison to make sure that all the vampiric DNA was removed and the rest is stable."

"You doubt my work Helen?" Nikola actually managed to sound hurt at the idea.

"Not at all, but since this is my daughter I would prefer to be safe rather than sorry." Helen told him, "Thank you Owen." She added as the medic handed her the equipment she need to take a blood sample. "I also want to be sure that the rest of the controlling drugs are still dissipating from your system as expected." Ashley nodded and did her best not to shudder as her mother drew the blood. It would be along time before she got over her dislike of doctors and medical procedures.

Helen felt her daughter tense as soon as the needle touched her skin and understood. After what Ashley had been through it was a credit to her daughter's trust in here that she was able to tolerate having blood drawn. And it was nothing short of a miracle that she had been able to stay still while having the controlling insect removed. "There." Helen told her, removing the needle and pressing a dressing over the spot, "All done." She assured her daughter, just as she had when she'd taken blood from Ashley as a little girl. "And I am so glad your safe." She pulled Ashley into a long hug. "Loosing you was the worst thing that ever happened to me." She whispered into her daughter's ear.

"I missed you so much mom." Ashley told her. When Helen finally let her go Ashley surprised John by pulling him into a hug. After hesitating for a moment John carefully closed his arms around her and held her against him.

"Don't ever do that to me again Ashley." He warned her. "You and your mother are all I have left, if I loose you I'll have nothing."

"I'll try not to." Ashley said, there were tears in her eyes again but she wiped them away before they could fall.

Jack glanced at his watch, "Well it's lunch time and I think it's the girls turn to fetch." He glanced up at Tosh and Gwen. "You're joining us I assume?" He said looking at Helen, John and Ashley.

"If you don't mind." Helen said, "I realise that we've been imposing on you for quite some time."

"I'd never mind your company Helen."

"Mom can I go too?" Ashley asked as Tosh and Gwen went to get their handbags. Sure lunch would be put on the Torchwood account but that never meant they wouldn't spot something they liked while they were out and Sod's Law stated that they would always find something when they didn't have their purses with them.

"I don't see why not." Helen told her. Ashley grinned and slid of the chair, she'd have the wear the boots the Cabal had given her but she'd say this for them; for a bunch of bad-asses wanting to take over the world they had pretty good taste in footwear.

Once the girls had cleared out and Owen had shooed them out of the autopsy bay so that he could clean up and then prep for the autopsy he'd be finishing that afternoon, the one had had been put on hold when they'd found Ashley the previous day, Jack turned to Helen and John, Tesla too was still hovering in the background marvelling at his own genius and waiting for John to take him back to India.

"I was talking to Ashley earlier and I just thought you should know that she had major guilt issues for what the Cabal made her do."

"Understandable." Helen said.

"She also has a problem with doctors. She mentioned one who was her handler, for lack of a better term. She over saw her physical health and the drugs she was on, she was also responsible for injecting the serum they derived from the Source Blood." Jack told them, he could practically see Druitt gritting his teeth in anger.

"Go on." Helen prompted when Jack hesitated.

"Ashley said the woman sometimes acted like a mother towards her but only in the worst and most warped ways, saying that she was so proud of her, but in a very patronising way."

Helen understood exactly what Jack was telling her, "Thank you Jack, I'll be careful exactly how I speak to her and I'll try to keep any medical procedures to a minimum."

"She also asked about James." Jack added. "I told her what happened to him, she was almost certain he was dead because he wasn't one of her targets in London and because he wasn't here. She asked about his funeral."

"Yes we should see to that." Helen agreed. "I had been putting it off because I couldn't bear to lay James to rest the same week I did Ashley."

"He wanted to be buried at his Sanctuary." Jack said, "If you like I can make the preparations." Jack offered.

"Thank you." Helen said.

"I'll do it." Ianto offered, "I've had experience at planning funerals."

Jack nodded and Ianto left to set the arrangements in motion. "He's good, he'll see that James gets the proper send off. He arranged Estelle's funeral last year."

"I'm sorry Jack, I didn't know." Helen had known both Estelle and Jack back in the forties, they had been so good together but she hadn't known of Jack's immorality so eventually he'd had to leave her. He'd wanted her to have a normal life.

"Sorry to butt in." Tesla said, "But I need to get back, I was in the middle of some rather important work."

"No doubt that work is the reason you invented this." Helen said taking the Devamper from his hand. "I will look after this for you but I expect you to never need it" She warned him, "Don't get in over your head Nikola."

"Of course not Helen. When have I ever got in over my head?"

"When I had to fake your death." Helen reminded him, "Just be careful Nikola. Will you come to James's funeral?"

"I will." Tesla agreed, "Now is there any chance I could get home today?"

Just before John grabbed Tesla's arms Helen handed him the bottle of wine he'd taken form her wine cellar, "You think I didn't notice? Consider it payment." Then John teleported them both back to Tesla's villa in India. Helen found a piece of paper and jotted down a phone number, "This is Declan's number, he's the Head of House in London, call him and let him know about the arrangements for James's funeral. They're rebuilding at the moment but they'll make time for this."

"Understood." Jack said, "How many Heads did you loose?"

"Four." Helen admitted, "Five if you count James, half the Sanctuaries don't have a Head of House anymore and the Cabal targeted only the largest. They left the smaller Sanctuaries, Mumbai, Sydney, Berlin and New York alone. I'm thinking about moving those experienced Heads but we lost a lot of good people."

At that moment John reappeared, "Helen I suggest that you keep an eye on Mexico for the next few months."

"Why?"

"Tesla had a lot of paperwork relating to that country scattered about his main room."

"You think that might be his next stop on his quest." Helen asked and John nodded. "Very well I'll keep an eye on it." She agreed. "If all of Ashley's test come back normal I'd like to return to the Sanctuary this evening. I think that been back in her own home will be beneficial for Ashley, plus I'm sure that many of the residents will be anxious to see that she is alive and herself again. And the other Head of House are waiting for a full report from me."

"As you wish." John said, "I will take you back whenever you need."

Ianto came up behind them and cleared his throat, "Doctor Magnus? I don't want to bother you but I need your input on the the arrangements, after all I never knew James Watson. Outside of fiction that is."

"Of course Ianto." Helen told him. John followed them over to the computer Ianto was using and spent the next fifteen minutes choosing everything that would be needed for the funeral. Helen was amazed at how easily Ianto was able to prepare everything and within those fifteen minutes everything was set up for the funeral.

"How many funerals have you arranged Ianto?" Helen asked when they were finished.

"Too many." Was all Ianto answered but fortunately they were spared any uncomfortable silence by the return of Tosh, Gwen and Ashley.

"I take it Ashley chose." Jack said as he spotted the three women. They were carrying bags from the local fish 'n' chips shop. Ashley hadn't actually bothered waiting until they got back and unwrapped her as soon as she was out of the shop.

"Come on." She said as she speared another chip with the little wooden fork, "There is no where on Earth that does fish and chips like the UK, and certainly no where that wraps them properly, in paper."

"I think I can smell the vinegar on your from here." Helen commented as she took the bag from Ashley.

"Mom it's the proper way to eat them." Ashley insisted as Tosh turned over her bag to Ianto. Helen had already handed one of the wrapped fish and chips to John while Ianto did the same to Jack. They all settled on the sofas near the autopsy bay, pulling in additional chairs as needed. Owen came up to join them, even though he couldn't eat he still demanded his hour lunch break and usually took it with the rest of the team.

"Hey mom, do you remember that time when I was eight and Uncle James took us all to Blackpool for the week, to see the Illuminations?" Ashley said with a grin.

"I do." Helen said with a matching smiled, "I particularly remember the weekend when Jack joined us."

"I don't think anyone wants to hear that old story." Jack said quickly.

"No I think they do." Druitt said having taken one look at the Torchwood team ,all of whom were now eagerly leaning forward to hear the story. "Why don't you do the honours Ashley?"

"Well we'd been to the Pleasure Beach for a while and then up the Tower and out onto the South Pier. James won me a stuffed owl with glasses so I named it after him." She smiled fondly at the memory. "It was early evening and the wind was starting to pick up so mom said we should go back to the hotel but Jack had promised me chips on the sea front."

Helen took over, "So that's what we did, despite the storm that was coming in, James Ashley and I walked along like sensible people but Jack been Jack, decided a simple stroll along the Promenade wasn't fun enough so he decided to show off and walk along the sea wall."

Ashley burst in excitedly, "Then this big huge wave came out of no where and swept him right off the wall and onto the floor in front of us!"

"I thought he'd managed to get himself killed." Helen told them, "Then he looked up at us and said 'That was fun.' He looked like a drowned rat and he complained all the way back to the hotel that his coat weighted a ton when it was wet."

"It does." Jack muttered

"For the rest of the trip James called him 'Captain Drowned Rat' because that's what he looked like." Helen said with a laugh.

"The rest of the trip my arse." Jack complained, "He called it me for years, the last letter I had from him was addressed 'Dear Captain Drowned Rat.' He intended to never let me forget it." He looked around at the smiling faces of his team, "You're never going to let me live this down either are you?"

"Who us?" Gwen asked with a wicked gleam in her eye.

"Would we do something like that?" Ianto asked looking equally evil.

"We'd never do that Captain Drowned Rat, sir." Owen finished with a smart arsed salute, Tosh hadn't said anything but had spent the entire time giggling into her chips.

They decided to spend the rest of the day at the Hub, it would take a few hours for the results of Ashley's tests to come though but early indications were good. It seemed as if most of the drugs had been flushed from her system and the few that remained were breaking down at the expected speed. Another two days and no trace of the Cabal control drugs would be left in her system

If only her mind would be as easy and quick to heal as her body. Ashley had already had one breakdown on the shooting range with Jack and Helen wondered how many more there would be. Especially once she was back within the Sanctuary and facing daily reminders of what she had been forced to do.

While she was waiting for the tests to run Helen commandeered a computer and began typing up the report that would be sent to the other Heads and acting-Head of House. There was going to be fall out from this, of that Helen had no doubt. There would be questions about the advisability of allowing Ashley to be free. The other Heads would demand through physical and psychiatric tests to prove that she was free of the Cabal's control.

And with the death of James Watson, Helen's position was no longer as secure as it once was. For as long as just about every abnormal on Earth could remember Helen Magnus and James Watson had been the Head and assistant-Head of the Global Sanctuary Network. With James's death the question of who was now second in command of the Network had arisen and there were several who were trying to manoeuvre themselves into that position either by currying favour with Helen or with the other Heads.

And with such a major shake up of the structure of the Network there were also whispers about whether Helen was the right person to lead just because she had founded it. Of course they were only very quiet whispers at the moment and they stopped the moment Helen or someone known to be loyal to her, such as Henry or Will, appeared. But they were still there. And the situation with Ashley could blow the whole thing wide open if it wasn't handled correctly. The key was to ensure the Ashley was seen as a victim, exactly the same as anyone that the super-abnormals had killed.

While Helen worked, Ashley was having the first thing resembling fun that she'd had in two months. First she helped to feed Myfanwy and then spent a while playing with her before Jack hauled her off with him to see some of the technology that Torchwood had gathered over the decades. It was something that Ashley had always wanted to do but never been allowed.

John was left at something of a loose end, he had nothing he needed to do yet he couldn't leave. Ashley had yet to actually use her teleporting without the Cabal forcing her to so it was likely that she and Helen would need him to take them back to the Sanctuary. Even if that wasn't the case the miracle of his daughter's survival was too new for him to want to leave her side. Even if she didn't need him he would have to stay, for more than a week he had believed her dead. He was just debating going for a walk, it had been decades maybe even a century, since he'd seen Cardiff, when a text book landed on the sofa next to him.

Owen leant his head around the corner of the autopsy bay so he could see Druitt, who was staring at the textbook he'd just thrown on the sofa. "You only seemed to understand one word in three when Doctor Magnus started talking about the genetics and I know they've changed since you were last at Uni."

"Doctor Harper I was at Oxford less than thirty years after Darwin published his theory of natural selection, the word genetics wasn't even in use then."

Whatever mate." Owen said, "I just thought you could a refresher course and you look bored out of your mind." Owen headed back into his autopsy bay and back to the alien body he had been in the middle of autopsying.

John knew that Doctor Harper was correct, he was behind the times and he did need something to do. So he picked up the book. 'Molecular Biology: Understanding the Genetic Revolution.' Deciding that he might as well read it as not he opened it and flipped through the first dozen or so pages of acknowledgements, dedications and far too detailed a list of contents.

Finally he reached the actual text, and wondered when authors had decided that there needed to be so many pictures in a scientific textbook. Sighing at the limited attention span the modern world seemed to generate he started reading. 'From very ancient times, people have vaguely recognised the basic premise of heritability. It was always a presumption that children looked like their fathers and mothers...'

"Henry lower the EM shield we'll be home in about ten minutes." Helen told her tech over the phone. All of Ashley's tests had come back clear, her DNA was her own again and while there were still traces of some of the drugs in her system, they were been flushed as fast as would be expected and certainly didn't pose a danger to her or anyone else.

"Got it boss." Henry said, "And can you arrive in the Entrance Hall? The residents have got a surprise for Ashley."

"I will do Henry." Helen assured him. "And we'll see you soon." She shut her phone and turned to where Ashley was hugging Jack and his team goodbye.

"Don't be a stranger." Jack told her, "Especially once you get this teleporting thing sorted and can't use the flight time as an excuse anymore."

"I won't." Ashley promised, "Beside I have to come back, if only for Ianto's coffee." She grinned as she turned to hug the Welshman.

"It's been a pleasure Ashley." Ianto told her.

"Yeah." Owen agreed as he was hugged in turn. "And if you have anymore stories about Captain Drowned Rat, please share."

"I will." Ashley said with a laugh. As she then hugged Gwen and Tosh.

"It's time to go." Helen said, Ashley turned back to her mother and nodded before walking over to join her and John. "Jack it's been wonderful to see you again, I just wish it had been under other circumstances."

"I think the circumstances were pretty good Helen." Jack told her with a grin, "It's not every day you get to tell someone their daughter is alive."

"You're right Jack." Helen said with a smile and then she sobered, "We'll see you next week?" The funeral of James Watson had been arranged for the following week at the London Sanctuary.

"You will." Jack promised.

"Alright then," Helen said with a nod, "It was good to meet your team Jack."

"It was good to meet someone from Jack's past." Owen said, "And for us to not nearly die in the process." From the way the team laughed Helen had to wonder how often that had happened in the past.

"Say hi to Henry for me." Tosh said.

"And Will" Gwen agreed.

"I will give everyone you're regards." Helen promised, then she turned to John, "Can you teleport us to the Entrance Hall?"

"Of course." John agreed, "Ashley can you take yourself?"

"I've never done it consciously." Ashley told him, John understood and wrapped his arm around her waist so that he could teleport her instead. Helen picked up her bag and allowed John to place his hand on her arm.

"I'll see you next week." Helen promised then nodded her head and John teleported them back to the Sanctuary.

* * *

AN: Just an epilouge left now and that will possibly be up tomorrow.


	10. Epilogue

Ashley was very grateful for her father's arm around her waist. It kept her upright as the world reformed in front of her eyes to show an Entrance Hall that was fuller than she had ever seen it. Every one of the sentient abnormals was there, including some of them who still lived out in the world. And yet others she recognised from Sanctuaries around the world, she knew they were only there because their homes had been destroyed. But she deliberately pushed the thought of why those residents were homeless from her mind, today was a happy day. She'd think about that sort of thing tomorrow. Hung between the two staircases was a banner saying 'Welcome Home Ashley', it looked to have been made out of a bed sheet and Ashley really hoped it wasn't one of her mother's best Egyptian cotton sheets

As they appeared a cheer went through the assembled abnormals and Ashley found herself been quickly pulled from her parents and into a series of hugs. It felt like she was hugged by everyone in the room at least twice, Henry told her that the mermaid was expecting a visit from her at some point in the very near future and promised that he'd been keeping an eye on the Nubbins.

When she finally got a moment to breathe, and it seemed as if the welcoming committee had been turned into a party since someone had brought out food and drinks, Ashley spotted an Indian woman who was hanging back from her. A very familiar Indian woman, though the last time Ashley had seen her it had been from the business end of a rocket launcher.

Making her way over, Ashley decided to introduce herself. "Hey I'm Ashley, I don't think I know your name."

"I'm Kate Freelander and in case you can't remember I'm the one who shot you with a rocker launcher."

"You stopped me killing my mom so that makes us even." Ashley said holding out her hand, Kate took it a little hesitantly. "So you planning on sticking around?"

"I don't know if I'll be allowed to." Kate admitted.

"Do you want to?" Ashley asked.

"Well I haven't got anywhere else to go." Kate told her, slightly hesitantly. She didn't usually like revealing her weaknesses to other people.

"That's the point of the Sanctuary." Ashley told her, "A place for people with no where else to go. Besides I think Will is sick of been the odd one out."

"Huh?" Kate asked, not getting it.

"In case you haven't noticed, Will is the only human in the room." Ashley said with a grin, "Come on, lets get something to eat." Ashley grabbed Kate's arm and pulled her towards where the Big Guy had set up some tables to hold all of the food, "Have you met the Nubbins yet?"

Helen looked around happily at all the people who had assembled to welcome Ashley home. Her daughter had grown up with many of them and for others she had been a part of the Sanctuary as long as they had known of it. She was pleased to see Ashley go over to Kate and then after talking for a few minutes she hauled the other woman over to he buffet table.

"What are you going to do about Kate?" Will asked as he appeared at her side.

"She did pretty good with the baby steno." Helen said, "And Ashley seems to be getting on with her, it'll be good for her to have a female friend."

"So she's staying?" Will asked.

Helen nodded, "If she likes, I'll offer her a place on a trail basis in the morning, we'll see how it goes from there." Helen continued decided not to interrupt the rather animated conversation the two women seemed to be having, from the gestures Helen was almost scared to imagine what they were talking about. "What about you John?" She asked sensing that he was behind her even without seeing him, "Will you stay?"

"For the moment." He told her, "Ashley needs me to help her control her teleporting."

"And after that?" Helen hated the way her voice caught.

"There's no place here for me Helen, this is a place of peace and I am a killer. But I will always be available to you, I will always come when you or Ashley call me." He gave her the only promise he could even as he knew that he might not be able to keep it. The rage inside of him was fighting to be free and he might not be able to hold it forever. Still he would take the time with her and Ashley that he could and then he would count on Harkness to put him out of his misery.

Ashley finally escaped all her well wishers and climbed the stairs up to the permanent staff accommodation. Her feet remembered the familiar path to her room almost without direction and she was at her door before she even realised that was where she was going. Placing her hand on the door knob she suddenly realised that it might not be her room anymore, that someone might have packed up all her stuff.

But she needn't have worried. When she opened the door she found everything just as she had left it, right down to the clothes in her closet. Smiling Ashley changed into her pyjamas and snuggled down in her own bed for the first time in almost two months. Sighing happily to herself she closed her eyes and quickly fell asleep.

There would be no nightmares that night, they would come over the following days, weeks and months as Ashley started to heal the mental injuries caused by her captivity and enslavement. But she would eventually recover and become that happy daughter that her mother remembered.

* * *

AN: So that's the end of Survival Instinct. Thanks to everyone for reading. There will be a sequel (another Torchwood/Sanctuary crossover) because I wasn't very fond of the ending of Haunted either and since I've just saved Ashley I think I'll now save Druitt. Unfortunatly that won't be posted until mid-June because I am working abroad until then (full details are on my profile).  
Bye for now  
~Shlane


End file.
